Esteban Castro

18 year-old pianist and composer, Esteban Castro captivates audiences and critics with performances that are intimate and sophisticated beyond his young years. He attends the Juilliard School on a full-tuition Thomas Dubois Hormel Memorial Scholarship, studying with Ted Rosenthal. He also studies privately with Fred Hersch. He recently graduated as a double major from the MSM Precollege on a Nana’s Way Scholarship, studying classical piano with Phillip Kawin and jazz with Jeremy Manasia.

At age 13, Esteban was the First Prize Winner in the Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition in 2016, making him the youngest ever to receive this prestigious award. The next year he won First Prize at the 2017 Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. With over 40 compositions to his name, Esteban has garnered three ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Awards, and has won fifteen Downbeat Student Music Awards. He was selected as a pianist for the Grammy Band in 2017 and 2018, as a 2019 YoungArts Finalist, and as a member of the 2019 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. He has won a variety of classical piano competitions, including the 2019 MSM Precollege Philharmonic Concerto Competition, playing Prokofiev’s 1st Piano Concerto. Esteban was commissioned for a big band arrangement by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for the Thelonious Monk 100th Birthday Celebration in 2018.

Esteban has played to sold-out audiences in venues such as The Blue Note, The Montreux Jazz Club, The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. He's also performed in Switzerland, Italy, France, Peru, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Esteban routinely donates his time and performances to charitable causes such as the Jazz Ambassadors, the American Cancer Society, Haiti Disaster Relief, Aid to Victims of Hurricane Maria, and to provide musical instruments for needs-based students.

Esteban Castro is a Young Steinway Artist

Photo: Jonathan Broady