|
|
Charles Castleman, perhaps the world’s most active performer/ pedagogue on the violin, has been soloist with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Boston, Brisbane, Chicago, Hong Kong, Moscow, Mexico City, New York, San Francisco, Seoul and Shanghai. Medalist at Tchaikovsky and Brussels, his Jongen Concerto is included in a CD set of the 17 best prize-winning performances of the Brussels competition’s 50-year history.
|
400-word Musical Biography and Curriculum Vitae |
|
|
Currently available discography |
|
|
Personal Biography |
|
|
Repertory |
|
|
The Prodigy Years |
|
|
Administrative Experience |
|
|
Academic Pursuits |
| Chair of The Eastman School of Music’s String Department, Charles Castleman has conducted master-classes in Kiev, London, Montreux, Salzburg, Vienna, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, and over 50 U.S. Universities. He is founder/director of THE QUARTET PROGRAM, in its 39th season, now at S.U.N.Y. Fredonia in New York State, and University of Colorado at Boulder, an intensive and extensive workshop in solo and chamber performance. Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma have donated master-classes there, Mr.Ma praising it as "the best program of its kind..a training ground in lifemanship." |
UPCOMING SUMMER PERFORMANCES AND MASTER-CLASSES
Quartet Program at S.U.N.Y. Fredonia
Friday July 4 at 2 pm-- master-class-- Rosch Hall
Wednesday July 23 at 8 pm-- recital -- Rosch Hall
(Bach g, Ysaye Ballade, Ysaye Poeme Elegaic, 5 Dvorak character pieces, Sarasate Carmen Fantasy)
Quartet Program at University Colorado Boulder
Wednesday July 9 at 7:30 pm-- recital with Koreen Kawalec and Thomas Landschoot -- Grusin Hall
(Bach g, 5 Dvorak characcter pieces, Ysaye Ballade , Roussanova Duo, Sarasate Carmen Fantasy)
Chautauqua NY Festival
Friday July 25 at 2 pm-- master-class
Niagara University
Thursday July 24 at 2pm--master-class
recent highlight
A Musical Feast , Buffalo, NY May 27, 2008
Review:
".. Violinist Charles Castleman took the stage with Hoca for a set of Dvorak, mostly Fritz Kreisler, arrangements. The impish, charming Castleman had the audience eating out of his hand, so elegant was his playing, so gypsyish, so extroverted. He had an irresistible way of bowing - grinning and pulling his shoulders up into a shrug. You wanted to hug him "
BUFFALO EVENING NEWS May 28, 2008 Mary Kunz Goldman
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Available CD: 8 Hubay Csardases (with Eastman Chamber Orchestra, Mendi Rodan, conductor) , from Musicandarts.com
Reviews
"Our modern day hero Charles Castleman speaks every note intuitively, drawing the ear with the richest of G string sounds and the sweetest of E’s. The stratosphere holds no terrors as he zips around the fingerboard with nonchalance, at the same time spinning gorgeous tunes with an ineffably sweet tone, grace and freedom. Castleman is equally at ease in the long spun melodies as in the highly virtuosic cadenzas and exuberantly rhythmic fast passages. " Mary Nemet, STRINGS/ STRINGENDO 10/05
" Charles Castleman fans the smoldering embers that glow in these rhapodic pieces. Urgently recommended!" Robert Maxham, FANFARE 9/05
"will have violin fanciers drooling... Although capable of facing Hubay’s challenges head-on, Castleman is a musician before he is a virtuoso. That distinction is what makes this music sound as good as it does. He treats it with respect - and with affection too - rather than as an opportunity to show off, and its stature is increased accordingly."Raymond Tuttle, CLASSICAL NET 11/05
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Available edition: 8 Hubay Csardases (ed. Charles Castleman), from Craig Purdy craigpurdy@mac.com for $25 per Csardas, $20 each for more than 1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Available technical studies:
Violin Masters and their Bow Techniques , by Charles Castleman, from ccastleman@aol.com for $15
Superior Facility Exercises of Emanuel Ondricek (ed Charles Castleman), from Southern Music Company
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
other recent reviews
Park City UT Chamber Music Festival September 26-30, 2007 Salt Lake City, Park City
Review:
"Violinist Charles Castleman is a well-known figure at this festival (as well as its parent festival, the Park City and Salt Lake City Music Festival). He brought his resplendent artistry to Wednesday's concert, opening with two dazzling virtuoso pieces. Joined by pianist John Novacek, Castleman began with "Canto y Danza Aragonesa," a delightfully virtuosic piece by the early 20th century Spanish violinist and composer Manuel Quiroga. Taking his cue from another Spanish violinist/composer, Pablo de Sarasate, Quiroga wrote in a wonderfully immediate and entertaining style. Castleman captured the vitality and romantic fervor of the "Canto y Danza Aragonesa" with his dynamic and energetic playing.
In a somewhat different vein, Castleman returned onstage and played Eugene Ysaye's Sonata for Solo Violin No. 6, which is dedicated to Quiroga. The one-movement piece is an immensely demanding work, craving the utmost in technique and brilliance from the violinist. And once again, Castleman played with amazing virtuosity and incredible musicality that emphasized the work's underlying lyricism.
The concert concluded with Johannes Brahms' Piano Quartet in G minor, op. 26, played by Castleman, Harlow, Landschoot and Novacek. The foursome gave a radiant reading that captured the depth of emotions and expressions and brought the audience to its feet at the end of the demonic Presto finale."
DESERET(Salt Lake City, UT) MORNING NEWS September 28, 2007 Edward Reichel
George Rochberg Memorial Concert December 28, 2005 co-organized with Jerome Lowenthal, sponsored by Mrs Rochberg, program included"Bocca della Verita" dedicated by George Rochberg to Charles Castleman, "Cello Quintet" performed by participants in Charles Castleman's Quartet Program -Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York City
Review:
"One of Rochberg's last serial works , La Bocca Della Verita, for violin and piano received a thrillingly hair-raising exorcism by Charles Castleman and Jerry Lowenthal .. This is jagged, explosive late-1950s serial music taken to a new level of refinement, beside which contemporaneous Stockhausen seems clumsy and Boulez esoteric…The later music is supremely human; La Bocca Della Verita is superhuman"
Sequenza 21/The Contemporary Classical Music Portal January 1, 2006 -Eric Bruskin
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Achievements of former students |
Questions? Email Charles Castleman at ccastleman@aol.com
write him at The Eastman School of Music, 26 Gibbs St, Rochester, NY 14604, or
telephone him at (585) 442-4282
 |
