About Me
Short Bio Zaira Castillo is a pianist and sound artist whose work blurs the boundaries between performance, experimentation, and community engagement. Trained as a classical pianist, her practice centers on contemporary classical music, electroacoustic works, improvisation, and interdisciplinary projects that integrate electronics, gesture, and visual elements. She has appeared at venues including Constellation, Elastic Arts, and the Epiphany Center for the Arts, and at festivals such as SPLICE and Time:Spans with Ensemble Dal Niente. Zaira is co-founder of Duo Riso and is excited about upcoming performances with the duo at Electronic Music Midwest and codes d’accès, as well as a summer program of complete premieres presented as part of the Cleat Series. She is a Steinway Educational Partner and teaches at the Music Conservatory of Illinois.
Long Bio Zaira Castillo is a pianist and sound artist whose work blurs the boundaries between performance, experimentation, and community engagement. While trained as a classical pianist, her practice has evolved toward creating immersive experiences through contemporary classical music, electroacoustic works, improvisation, and interdisciplinary projects. Integrating electronics, lighting, gesture, and found objects, she explores new ways for performers and audiences to interact with sound, space, and the body.
Zaira has appeared across Chicago and beyond at venues including Constellation, Elastic Arts, the Epiphany Center for the Arts, Roosevelt University, Northwestern University, and the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York. She has been featured in festivals and series such as SPLICE, New Music Chicago’s Impromptu Fest, the Frequency Series, Elastic Arts’ Pianist and a Partner Perhaps, and the 2025 Time:Spans Festival with Ensemble Dal Niente.
In 2023, she co-founded Duo Riso with clarinetist Evan Kopca, a collaboration dedicated to promoting new and experimental chamber music. Together, they have already presented over ten new works throughout Chicago. Zaira is excited about upcoming performances with Duo Riso at Electronic Music Midwest and Codes d’accès, as well as a summer concert consisting entirely of premieres presented as part of the Cleat Series at Elastic Arts.
Her interest in accessibility, dialogue, and representation also informs her community-based and research-driven projects. Identity through Sound, her graduate research initiative, commissioned new piano works exploring how composers’ cultural backgrounds shape their musical voices. The project combined short films with performance and was featured at the University of Georgia’s Spotlight on the Arts Festival.
An active educator, Zaira is a Steinway Educational Partner and teaches at the Music Conservatory of Illinois, where she mentors the next generation of musicians. When she is not performing or teaching, she enjoys long walks, teaching yoga (RYT 200), and documenting the world through film photography.