Chris Castellanos
Visiting Assistant Professor of Horn
Biography
A native of Las Vegas, NV, Chris Castellanos has enjoyed prosperous and eclectic musical career. Upon joining the Las Vegas Philharmonic at the age of 19, Chris quickly established himself as a top call freelancer on the Las Vegas Strip, backing countless headliners - most notably: Placido Domingo, Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra Jr., Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet, Olivia Newton John, Peter Cetera, Weird Al Yankovic,
Kenny G, Yes, Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, Ricky Martin, Little River Band, Seth MacFarlane, Journey (Greatest hits live album and DVD), David Foster (“Hit Man” live album and DVD) and frequent tours with Andrea Bocelli. Additionally, Chris played more than 1700 shows over a 6 year run of Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular, as well as frequent playing in the pits for Spamalot and The Lion King.
In late 2003, Chris found his passion as a chamber musician after joining the Dallas Brass for a 6-year tenure touring the U.S. and abroad. In 2009 Chris left the Dallas Brass to join the prestigious Boston Brass as Hornist, Arranger and Co-Owner of the group, with whom he presently tours the world over 180 days per year. In addition to his duties with the Boston Brass, Chris is a very active soloist and is dedicated to the constant promotion of new, unique music for the horn. In 2019, Chris recorded the premiere of Tony Labounty’s “Prophecy” for horn with Thomas Leslie and the 51ԹϺ Wind Orchestra under Klavier records to high acclaim and rave reviews. To quote Fanfare Magazine “How Castellanos has any lip left at the end is beyond me. By quite some way, this is the best horn playing I have heard in years”. During the pandemic
lockdown, at a time when musicians were not easily able to play with live accompanists, Chris collaborated with hornist / composer James Naigus to spearhead a consortium and premiere “Visions”, a new work for horn and fixed media. Most recently, Chris commissioned the 3-movement work "Shadows of Jazz" by Nathan Tanouye, for Horn, Piano and Upright Bass, which he premiered as a featured artist at the 54th
International Horn Symposium.
Passionate about music education, Chris serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Horn at his alma mater, the 51ԹϺ School of Music. As an international educator, Chris has covered every state in the US as well over 40 countries, having given clinics and masterclasses at nearly 200 Colleges, Universities and Conservatories, including The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, The Sibelius Academy (Finland), The Bruckner Academy of Music (Austria), Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, The Royal Academy of Music (London), The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and many more. Additionally, Chris, serves as Visiting Ensemble-in-Residence (Boston Brass) at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore as well as on the International Artist Advisory Council for Mahidol University's College of Music in Thailand.
Outside of performing, Chris is the host of the popular podcast "Music on the Rocks", which features long form interviews with some of the best musicians in their field. Chris also Co-owns the company Pro Elite Music, which produces the high end, graphene-infused valve oil "Pro Elite Oil" for brass instruments.
Chris has been a Performing and Educational Artist for the Yamaha Music Corporation since 2015, giving clinics, concerts and masterclasses worldwide. He currently resides in Utah where he enjoys spending his time with his wife Tina, who also enjoys a bustling music career as Principal Flute of the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Assistant Professor of Flute at BYU (Provo, Utah) and their two children Lily and Orion.