NOVEMBER 2023: EMMANUEL VUKOVICH DEBUT ALBUM RELEASE & TOUR
Zosha’s Patina for Solo Violin is featured on violinist Emmanuel Vukovich’s debut album RESILIENCE
Zosha Di Castri's Patina for solo violin is included on Canadian violinist Emmanuel Vukovich's debut album, RESILIENCE. The album also features pianist Katherine Dowling and baritone Philippe Sly performing Dinuk Wijeratne’s Sonata for Violin & Piano, and a world premiere of Sheila Silver’s Resilient Earth Caprices. Inspired by Béla Bartók’s legacy of cross-cultural musical exploration, the album centers around Bartók’s Solo Violin Sonata and includes a selection of his Turkish & Serbo-Croatian Folk & Peasant Melodies, newly arranged for this album by Vukovich.
Recorded at Domaine Forget in Charlevoix Quebec by Martha de Francisco and Haruka Nagata, the recording was produced by Leaf Music through a generous grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, and the album was produced by HitLab Music Group.
More info here. Released on Warner Music Canada, November 2023.
FEBRUARY 2023: American Academy of Arts and Letters Music AwardS
Zosha named 2023 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship in Music recipient
Zosha has been named a 2023 American Academy of Arts and Letters Music Awards winner, as one of two recipients of the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship in Music alongside Andy Akiho. The fellowship was endowed in 1978 by the CBS Foundation to award exceptionally gifted mid-career composers.
This year's 16 recipients of the awards in music were selected by a committee of Academy members: Julia Wolfe (chair), Annea Lockwood, David Sanford, Christopher Theofanidis, Augusta Read Thomas, Chinary Ung, and Melinda Wagner. The awards will be presented at the Academy’s Ceremonial on May 24, 2023.
Congratulations, Zosha!
October 2022: I, A.M. - Artist Mother Project
New works for violin and electronics
Violinist Olivia De Prato’s new release on New World Records features Olivia’s collaboration with Zosha, The Dream Feed.
In Olivia’s words: “The perennial question of whether a woman can be both an artist and a mother has been on my mind for a few years, having started a family myself in 2016. Important as it is, this topic is not often discussed in modern society, especially not in the frenetic environment of New York City. How did this life-changing experience influence our artistic vision and creativity? How do we fit into a society that still believes women must choose between family and art?" […] This project highlights the rich and diverse talent of each artist while giving us a platform to discuss how the challenges and benefits of motherhood shape our artistic endeavors.”
More info on The Dream Feed here.
SEPTEMBER 2022: Expression and Technologies of Perception in Zosha Di Castri and David Adamcyk’s ‘Phonobellow’
In a new article published by the Oxford Handbook of Spectral Music, composer, performer, and music scholar William Mason considers excerpts from pieces by Grisey and Murail against Zosha's and David Adamcyk’s 2015 piece Phonobellow, an evening-length music theatre work for five performers and electronics centered around a massive wooden bellows. Mason argues that "hallmarks of spectralism...[emerge] from a tradition of musical inquiry into technology and expression that characterizes the particular strand of modernism that included the spectralists.
Read the article here.
August 2021: ‘I care if you listen’ 5 questions
Zosha is featured in I Care If You Listen with five questions touching on her most recent podcast release, “The Dream Feed,” composing, motherhood, and her new project, Matricalis, a community for musician-mothers.
Read the interview with Zosha here.
JULY 2021: The dream feed podcast release
Zosha has released a new podcast, “The Dream Feed: Musicians on Motherhood.” Hosted by Zosha, this podcast series features conversations between musicians on their experiences navigating the seemingly incompatible worlds of professional music and motherhood, sharing in both the personal challenges and profoundly inspiring moments that come with being simultaneously mothers and musicians.
In "B-Side" episodes, the performers share a jointly created duo and discuss what it was like to collaborate at a distance.
Listen to the episodes and discover more here.
This project was made possible by a generous grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
JUNE 2021: TORONTO SYMPHONY x BARBARA HANNIGAN
Zosha will be writing a new song cycle for soprano Barbara Hannigan and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Gimeno, premiering May 19, 2022 at Roy Thomson Hall. Through the work’s luminescent and mysterious textures, Zosha explores the power of the human voice to communicate moments of deep intimacy and ecstatic transcendence.
More information on the concerts can be found here.
April 2021: Guggenheim fellowship
Zosha has been named one of the awardees of the 2021 John S. Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for Musical Composition, given to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional creative ability in the arts.
For a full list of 2021 awardees, see here.
April 2021: UNSUNG STORIES - WOMEN AT COLUMBIA’S COMPUTER MUSIC CENTER
Zosha has co-organized, along with Columbia University Professor Ellie Hisama, a two-day online symposium for Unsung Stories: Women at Columbia’s Computer Music Center. The symposium is one part of the three-pronged project, which also includes a podcast series and a fall 2021 concert. The project is a first step focusing on the legacy of women who have studied and worked at the renowned Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (renamed the Computer Music Center in 1996).
Unsung Stories highlights the work of women, including the work of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ composers and musicians at the Center, examining how institutional networks and intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, national origin, and other identifications impacted the daily work, modes of interaction, and visibility of women composers at the CPEMC/CMC historically and in the field more broadly. It features panels, one of which Zosha will moderate, and roundtables with over thirty composers/sound artists, and scholars who will discuss the lineage, musical excellence, experience, and visibility of the diverse women who have worked at the Center from the 1950s to its recent history.
For more information about the symposium and project, click here. To register for the symposium, click here.
March 2021: Tachitipo nominated for 2021 juno awards
Zosha’s "Tachitipo," the eponymous track of her debut album, has been nominated for Classical Composition of the Year in the 2021 JUNO Awards. The track is performed by the Yarn/Wire ensemble and was recorded at Oktaven Audio. Tachitipo is distributed by New Focus Recordings. For more information on the album, see here.
March 2021: Arcana ix - musicians on music
edited by john zorn
Initiated in 1997 and now in its ninth installment, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist John Zorn's Arcana series is a major source of new music theory and practice in the 21st century. Zosha’s essay, “Tachitipo—The Living Passport” is included in Arcana IX, among writings by other artists including Ann Cleare and Joel Ross.
More information on the volume and purchasing it can be found here.
February 2021: Yarn/Wire Feedback Series
Zosha spoke with Erica Scheinberg on November 19. 2020 as part of Yarn/Wire’s new Feedback Series. You can watch the episode at the video on the right or the Y/W website.
Yarn/Wire’s newis a proprietary online web series centered on the process of making new music. The series features 40-50 live video interviews with composers, musicians, and Y/W members covering a wide ranging set of topics, including our repertoire built over the past 15 years, as well as new works in progress. The inspiration for the project arises out the uncertainty that currently exists for performers and presenters about the state of artistic programming (and educational activities) in the next year.
January 2021: Esprit Orchestra “soundbites” series
Zosha joined Esprit Orchestra’s Music Director, Alex Pauk, in conversation discussing Zosha’s Serafiniana in Esprit’s Soundbites series. Zosha discusses her inspiration and creative process behind the piece, composing for different aspects of the amplified solo violin and amplified solo harp, and more in this interview.
You can also hear an excerpt of the piece here, which Esprit Orchestra premiered in Toronto’s Koerner Hall in 2014.
November & December 2020:
Chamber Music Society “Composers in focus” & “New milestones”
Zosha’s Sprung Testament will be featured in two virtual events in fall 2020 with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
On November 16, Zosha will join a live discussion of her career thus far and creative process for Sprung Testament, her violin/piano duo that CMS musicians Kristin Lee (violin) and Orion Weiss (piano) will perform digitally that same evening.
On December 3, CMS will showcase Lee’s and Weiss’ performance as part of their digital
”New Milestones” series. Take a listen at the video to the right, which will remain on-demand for one week.
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Photo by Nina Westervelt for The New York Times
AUGUST 21, 2020:
JACK QUARtet / new york times / new music new college
The internationally-renowned JACK Quartet performed as part of the Lots of Strings Festival in Morristown, NJ on August 21, 2020. The program featured Zosha’s String Quartet No. 1, which The New York Times noted for its “evocations of swiping, popping electronic sounds.”
JACK also performed String Quartet No. 1 at a concert recorded in New York City’s Merkin Hall, which you can stream here. Watch an interview with JACK about the program on New Music New College here.
August 13, 2020: Barlow endowment for music composition 2020
Zosha has been named one of the 15 recipients of the Barlow Endowment’s General and Latter-Day Saints commissioning program. As one of the awardees, Zosha will write her piece for the Ekmeles ensemble.
For more information on the award and recipients, see here.
july 27, 2020:
CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS -
“DIGITAL ORIGINALS” GRANT
Zosha has been awarded a Canada Council for the Arts "Digital Originals" grant for her project "Music & Motherhood Podcast: Interviews, Improvisations, Dialogues", which will reflect on the impact of motherhood on individual musicians.
Each episode will include a 10-minute interview, a 10-minute collaborative piece, and a 10-minute discussion about the joint creative process, to be released November 2020. Tackling one of the final taboos in the professional music world, this podcast hopes to openly explore the transformative nature of becoming a mother as an artist, considering both the logistical challenges, as well as the profound ways creativity can change, encouraging us towards new ways of thinking and doing.
JULY & OCtober 2020:
UNSUNG STORIES: grants awarded by Columbia university
October 2020
Zosha and Professor Ellie Hisama have been awarded a Columbia University Faculty Seed Grant to produce “Unsung Stories: Women at Columbia’s Computer Music Center,” as part of the Addressing Racism: A Call to Action for Higher Education initiative. The Office of the Provost has provided seed grant funding for faculty within the Columbia community that engage with issues of structural racism. The goal of this initiative is to provide resources to enable collaborative dialogue, action, and insight for systemic change towards racial equity.
July 2020:
Zosha and Professor Ellie Hisama have been awarded one of two 2020 Public Outreach Grants from Columbia's Center for Science and Society. The grant will fund "Unsung Stories: Women at Columbia’s Computer Music Center," a podcast series co-led by Hisama and Di Castri that will document the legacy, musical excellence, and experience of women composers in electronic music at Columbia's Computer Music Center. These episodes will start conversations on the treatment of women, LGBTQ+, non-binary, and non-white composers at Columbia and in the fields of music and technology as a whole. The project hopes to share this hidden history and encourage a more diverse community to pursue work in music technology, computer music, and electronic music.
The Center awards grants for public outreach efforts in science and society across the University through collaborations with on-campus and student-organized groups.
july 15, 2020:
aspen music festival - uncommon women of note
Zosha joins Aspen Music Festival's 2020 Virtual Festival in a virtual roundtable discussion focused on the history and currency of the realities facing women composers today. Chaired by Julia Wolfe, the participants reflect on their shared heritage as women composers—a lineage in which they are defining members. In addition to Zosha, other participating composers include Tania León, Missy Mazzoli, and Laura Schwendinger. Watch the full panel here.
Featured Artists:
Julia Wolfe, composer
Zosha Di Castri, composer
Tania León composer
Missy Mazzoli, composer
Jessie Montgomery, composer
Laura Schwendinger, composer
Joan Tower, composer
May 29, 2020: BBC RADIO 3 rebroadcast
At 12:31am London time on May 29, 2020, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast the First Night of the Proms 2019, featuring Zosha’s Long is the Journey, Short is the Memory. Karina Canellakis conducts the piece, commissioned by the BBC, alongside Janacek's majestic Glagolitic Mass. The recording will be available to stream until June 29, 2020.
may 11, 2020: mother’s day tribute
Zosha participated in violinist Olivia De Prato’s Mother’s Day Tribute 2020, along with vocalist Ha-Yang Kim. The music is meant to evoke “memories, reflection, doubt, strength, solidarity and commitment.”
March 17, 2020: Philadelphia Orchestra rebroadcasts
[UPDATE APRIL 16, 2020] In light of COVID-19 cancellations, the Philadelphia Orchestra has launched “Virtual Philadelphia Orchestra.” The orchestra’s February 2020 performances of Zosha’s Lineage will be available for free starting May 29, 2020, available for on-demand streaming through philorch.org.
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The Philadelphia Orchestra’s recent February 2020 performances of Zosha’s Lineage (2013), conducted by Karina Canellakis, will be broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM. The broadcasts will be on March 22, 2020 at 1pm ET and March 23, 2020 at 7pm on WRTI HD-2.
These are the orchestra’s first performances of Lineage. More info here.
February 25, 2020: ARt + MUsic + technology podcast
Zosha recently spoke with Darwin Grosse on the Art+Music+Technology podcast for episode 315, touching on a variety of topics ranging from her background and training, creative inspiration, and the breadth and depth of her versatile body of work.
January 31, 2020: Philadelphia orchestra - lineage
Zosha’s Lineage (2013) was recently conducted by Karina Canellakis in three concerts at her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in February 2020. For the occasion, Zosha curated an “Inspirations” playlist on Spotify for the occasion, which includes tracks by composers whose work has resonated with her own. Take a listen here.
The Philadelphia Orchestra also created a “Faces and Places” episode with Zosha and Karina Canellakis, discussing their relationship, Lineage, and Philly, which you can take a look at here.
The Philadelphia Inquirer praised Lineage for its “suspenseful, nocturnal, […] dream-state sense of altered reality” — read more about the concerts here.
December 12, 2019: The reviews are in - Tachitipo
Since its release on November 15, Zosha’s debut album, Tachitipo, has garnered acclaim from critics and listeners alike. Listen to & download the album here, and learn more about the tracks here. Take a look at a few notable reviews below:
Alex Ross, “The Rest is Noise”: Preliminary End of Year List 2019; Notable Performances of 2019 & the Decade
BBC Music Magazine: Chamber Reviews, March 2020
”There’s much to explore in the [six] pieces, performed by a variety of musicians across multiple locations.”
San Francisco Classical Voice: “Zosha Di Castri Lays Many Cards On The Table In Her First CD,” May 2020
”…imaginatively experimental.”
“An Earful”: Record Roundup - Contemporary Kaleidoscope
“Color. Texture. Emotion. Craft. All those virtues are fully on display on this stunning portrait debut from Di Castri...The name Zosha Di Castri is memorable all on its own, but this knockout album guarantees it will be on the lips of anyone who loves new music.”
MusicWorks: “Zosha Di Castri. Tachitipo.”
”…A striking, rigorous debut album of solo and chamber works […] confronts musical juxtapositions and leans into them, creating waves of unpredictability and tension.”
“I Care If You Listen”: Tachitipo: Zosha Di Castri’s “Challenging and Satisfying” Debut Album
”At once inventive and eerily familiar, Di Castri’s material appeals to the physiological ear and the analytical ear both, observing no taboos but accepting no easy solutions either. Throughout the record, the restlessness with which one sonic state shifts into another is both challenging and satisfying […] Tachitipo is a formidable statement […] comprehensively realized, institutionally ratified, and sensitive to the creative exigencies of the 21st century.”
New York Music Daily: A Rivetingly Relevant New Album and a West Village Release Show from Individualistic Composer Zosha Di Castri
"One of the most fascinating and distinctive composers to emerge from the New York indie classical demimonde in the last decade or so. She loves contrasts, paradoxes and disquieting timbres, and doesn’t shy away from darkness or social relevance. She also has a refreshing sense of humor and a healthy distrust of technology."
Avant Music News: AMN Reviews - Zosha Di Castri - Tachitipo
“The pieces on Tachitipo demonstrate Di Castri’s versatility in composing for different instrumental groupings [...] The pieces for orchestra and mixed chamber ensembles show Di Castri’s aptitude for handling contrasts and similarities of instrumental compass and color.”
The Whole Note: Zosha Di Castri - Tachitipo
”these works are inescapably moving, whether on a personal level, or when confronting the global issues that concern Di Castri […] Di Castri’s fresh, imaginative voice carries forward the vital lineage of the avant-garde at its most enjoyable.”
Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review: Zosha Di Castri, Tachitipo
”Zosha Di Castri shows herself in this album to be a voice of definite originality and talent, an imaginative and inventive force.
November 26, 2019: Alex ross - preliminary ‘notable recordings of 2019’ list
[UPDATE DEC 14 2019] Ross has also included Zosha’s Tachitipo on his “Notable Performances of 2019 and the Decade” list.
Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker and author of the acclaimed The Rest is Noise, has named Zosha’s debut album, Tachitipo (New Focus Recordings), as one of his preliminary “Notable Recordings of 2019.” The list also includes Igor Levit’s recordings of Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas (Sony) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s performance of Andrew Norman’s Sustain, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel (Deutsche Grammophon).
Listen to & download the album here, and learn more about the tracks here.
Tachitipo: video premiere
On November 7, 2019, I Care if You Listen premiered the video for Zosha’s solo percussion piece, how many bodies we have to pass through, co-composed and performed by Diego Espinosa Cruz Gonzalez. The video is a bonus track on Zosha’s upcoming debut album, Tachitipo, released November 15 on New Focus Recordings.
Zosha’s own words on how many bodies we have to pass through:
“Co-composed over two intensive workshops, two years apart (in New York and Paris), this piece began from a humble suitcase packed with hand percussion from around the world. Skirting traditional notation for a “storyboard score” and close collaboration, how many bodies have we to pass through maps physical gestures across instrumental surfaces by modifying and combining hand percussion to create a multiplicity of simultaneous voices performable by a single musician. Using clamps, foam, combs, and other implements to cross-connect surfaces, Diego’s tactile and highly kinetic dance invites you to peer in, as if witnessing an intimate ritual. This piece is dedicated to the victims of the 2017 Mexican earthquake, which occurred during the initial creative phase of this work.”
October 27, 2019: uchicago/cccc - world premiere
Zosha’s upcoming commission project will be for the esteemed 13-member Grossman Ensemble at the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition of the University of Chicago. Zosha’s piece will receive its world premiere on June 5, 2020, at the Logan Center for the Arts at UChicago, alongside newly-commissioned works by Du Yun and Jay Alan Yim, among others.
More info about the Grossman Ensemble here.
More info about the concert here.
October 16, 2019: Debut Album Release - Tachitipo
Zosha is excited to announce the release of her debut album, Tachitipo, on New Focus Recordings on November 15, 2019. The album features six eclectic chamber and solo works, both acoustic and electro-acoustic. The performers represent some of the most renowned contemporary artists today: vocal ensemble Ekmeles, Talea Ensemble, JACK Quartet, pianist Julia Den Boer, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, and percussionist Diego Espinosa Cruz Gonzalez in a special bonus video feature.
Tachitipo also highlights a unique collaboration with one of the top recording engineer-producers for classical music, Martha de Francisco, and the internationally-recognized conductor, Lorraine Vaillancourt, founder and musical director of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne in Montreal.
Join Zosha to celebrate her debut and mini-performances of album tracks by Julia Den Boer and Diego Espinosa Cruz Gonzalez on November 17, 2019 at the Tenri Institute in New York City. See here for more on the album and its tracks.
April 17, 2019: bbc proms 2019 - opening night of the Proms
Zosha is excited to announce that she has been commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to write a world premiere for the BBC Proms 2019 Opening Night of the Proms. Her work, which pays homage to the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, will be the very first performance of the 2019 Proms. Zosha’s piece will be conducted by Karina Canellakis, and will feature the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers. It shares the program with Dvorák's The Golden Spinning Wheel and Janácek's Glagolitic Mass.
The Opening Night of the Proms is 7:30pm on July 19, 2019 at Royal Albert Hall in London. More info about the Prom 1 here, and the 2019 lineup here.
Read reviews & articles from the performance below:
The Independent: “BBC Proms, review: First night is a finely nuanced success”
BBC News: “Conductor Karina Canellakis makes Proms history with stirring First Night”
The Guardian: “First night of the Proms review – the moon, and female stars”
BBC News Entertainment & Arts: “Behind the Proms' celestial opening number”
December 7, 2018: motherhood & the Creative process - music on main
In VIvian Fung’s new article in Music on Main on motherhood & composing, Zosha is featured as one of five Canadian composers speaking about how motherhood has influenced their artistic life. Read more here.
November 28, 2018: strange yet familiar sounds - new article on string quartet no. 1
Landon Morrison, PhD, Lecturer in the Department of Music Theory at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, has recently published a new paper on Zosha’s String Quartet No. 1. The paper examines the quartet, showcasing how it contains a diverse mix of stylistic impulses within its relatively compact form.
Listen to Zosha’s string quartet here, and catch upcoming performances of the work here.