Ms. Christina Castelli

Internationally acclaimed concert violinist and violist Christina Castelli has been a featured soloist with ensembles worldwide, including the orchestras of Cleveland, Atlanta, National, Seattle, Colorado, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, and Nashville in the U.S., and the Belgian National Orchestra, National Orchestra of Colombia, and Chilean Philharmonic overseas. Ms. Castelli is the only instrumentalist of her generation worldwide to be awarded top prizes in at major international competitions in both violin and viola—the only U.S.–born Laureate of the prestigious 2001 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition and grand prize winner of the William Primrose International Viola Competition.

As a recitalist, Ms. Castelli has appeared on concert series in nearly every major city in the United States, and has been presented in such prominent venues as Carnegie Hall, where she made her critically hailed 2004 recital debut, the United Nations, the Kennedy Center, Ravinia, Vancouver Chamber Festival, Newport Music Festival, and many others. She has also been heard as soloist and chamber musician on radio stations in both live and recorded broadcasts around the globe. Ms. Castelli was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and received a gold medal from President Clinton at the White House.

A teacher of award-winning violin students, Ms. Castelli is highly sought after as an instructor of children ranging from beginner (through the Suzuki Method) to professional level. She places great emphasis on parallel development of technical mastery alongside artistic development and is known for her keen ability to identify complex performance issues and work with students to rapidly resolve them. Some of Ms. Castelli’s students reside in other states and drive or fly in for lessons. Ms. Castelli has taught violin and viola for more than 20 years and has sent students to national and international competitions as well as major summer festivals across the United States. Ms. Castelli’s students have gone on to major in music at top music schools including The Juilliard School and New England Conservatory of Music (NEC).

Ms. Castelli began studying the violin at age three with Edward Kreitman, continuing her studies with Roland and Almita Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago. She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Harvard University and her master’s degree in violin performance from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Dorothy DeLay. She is the winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition and recipient of the Schuman Prize, Juilliard’s only award for graduate students.

Ms. Castelli serves as Director of the NJ Academy of Music in Bernardsville, New Jersey.