Biography

After a career of more than 25 years, argentine conductor/musicologist Gabriel Castagna has earned an international reputation as an outstanding performer of Latin-American symphonic music. His repertory in this field covers a large and wide variety of about two hundred and fifty composers and several hundred, mostly unknown, Latin-American masterworks; his pioneering recordings have been praised in prestigious magazines and newspapers worldwide, including: The Times of London, The Guardian, Fanfare, Revista Classica, Repertoire, International Record Review, BBC Classical Magazine, Classical FM, The Gramophone, Das Orchester, Música Hoy, Revista Cantábile and MusicWeb International.

In 2006, maestro Castagna conducted, by special request of the Piazzolla family, the world premiere of Astor Piazzolla´s only symphony, the Sinfonía Buenos Aires, and was unanimously acclaimed by music critics and musicologists, including a full page article in the August 2007 issue of the Gramophone. (Maestro Daniel Piazzolla, son of Astor Piazzolla speaks in a radio interview – April 2010- about Castagna´s Piazzolla´s works performances LISTEN)

Last year, Gabriel Castagna is conducted concerts that include new Latin American premieres by composers from Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Peru and Argentina. They were recorded for a new CD production to be released by Chandos Records, UK on May 31st 2011. Gabriel Castagna has guest conducted professional orchestras in America and Europe, including: Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires (Teatro Colón) Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, (Argentina) Berliner Symphoniker (Germany) Würtembergische Philharmonie, (Germany) Kammerorchester Mannheim (Germany) Pro Arte Wien Orchester (Austria) West Bohemian Symphony (Czech Republic) Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonie (Czech Republic) as Visiting Conductor, 1992-93, the Moravian Chamber Players (Czech Republic) Shinsei Nihon Symphony (Japan) Orquesta Sinfónica de Entre Ríos, Orquesta Sinfónica del Teatro Argentino, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tucumán Orquesta Sinfónica de Bahía Blanca, Orquesta Sinfónica de Mendoza, Orquesta Filarmónica de Mendoza, Orquesta Sinfónica de Santa Fe, Orquesta Sinfónica de San Juan, Orquesta Sinfónica de Córdoba (Argentina) etc.

Gabriel Castagna began his musical studies in Buenos Aires and continued them in the USA, where he was awarded scholarships at the universities of Rochester, Cincinnati (BM Cum Laude), Pittsburgh, and Michigan, as well as Carnegie Mellon University (MFA). He also took master-classes with Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Celibidache, and Max Rudolf. He was a prize-winner at the 1992 International Conducting Workshop Competition in Marienbad, the Czech Republic and, in 1988, was awarded with a life membership “in recognition of scholastic achievement and excellence” by the Golden Key National Honor Society of the USA. For the past three decades Gabriel Castagna has undertaken intensive research into Argentine and Latin-American symphonic music, and his book and CD Argentina Sinfónica, published in 2008, was declared ‘Of cultural interest’ by the Argentine Congress. Currently, he is preparing a catalogue of Latin-American symphonic music, which will include a large number of widely unknown works.