Announcement

Graduate Students’ Compositions to Premiere in Bay Area Concerts

January 11, 2018 Philip Acimovic Christopher Castro

Compositions by graduate students Philip Acimovic and Christopher Castro are to have their world premieres in an upcoming Left Coast Chamber Ensemble concert. Acimovic’s Reverent Murmurs for Two Pianos and Castro’s IV-I for Two Pianos are included in the program Visions de l’Amen.

The concert will be performed in two Bay area venues, first on Feb. 1 and 3 at the Berkeley Piano Club, then on Feb. 5 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

For details, visit the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble website.

Announcement

January 11, 2018 Philip Acimovic Christopher Castro

Student Profile

Philip Acimovic
Ph.D. in Composition, 2018

May 15, 2013 Ph.D.

Phil Acimovic is a composer and gamelan musician in Easthampton, MA. He writes quiet, austere music for solo and chamber ensembles. In 2018 he served as Artist-In-Residence at the Cold Hollow Sculpture Park in VT. Acimovic’s music taps into abstract emotional states, the quiet corners of the mind that are obstructed in our hyperactive world. His most recent project is a set of solo instrumental works inspired by abstract visual artists and complementing the disquietude of the Covid pandemic. His works have been performed by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the Empyrean Ensemble, the St.

pacimovic[remove-this-and-replace-with-at]ucdavis.edu

More about Phil

Faculty Profile

Christopher Castro
PhD in Composition 2018

February 20, 2013 Ph.D. in composition and theory from UC Davis Bachelor's in Music from the Juilliard School

Chris Castro is a composer and double bassist from Brooklyn, New York. His music has been described as “on par with Varèse,” giving him the nickname “The New Colossus of Sound.” He is a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2021 Classical Commissioning Award. His new work, Canções dos Desassossego (Songs of Disquiet), will be written for the Lyris Quartet and soprano Sharon Harms and premiered in 2023. His music has been performed by Sharon Harms and the Composers Conference Ensemble under James Baker (Two Songs from Brooklyn Narcissus), the St. Louis Symphony under David Robertson (Choruses III), pianists Sarah Cahill and Eric Zivian (IV-I), piano duo HereNowHear (Beethausenstro - Castockhoven) and the Lydian String Quartet (Choruses IV). He is the 2022 Guest Composer for the James Tenney Memorial Symposium, composing and collaborating with the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble. He has lectured at UC Davis and Sacramento State University and is currently faculty at Chapman University in California. He has a Ph.D. in composition and theory from UC Davis and a bachelor’s in music from the Juilliard School in both double bass and composition.

crcastro[remove-this-and-replace-with-at]ucdavis.edu

More about Chris

Graduate Students’ Compositions to Premiere in Bay Area Concerts

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