The Jazz Gallery: Esteban Castro

The Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway, 5th Fl.
New York, NY 10001

Sets at 7:30pm and 9:30pm

Esteban Castro is a 20-year-old pianist and composer based in New York City. He performs internationally with his own band and as an in-demand sideman. Among others, he has played with Billy Drummond, Francesco Cafiso, Gilad Hekselman, Giveton Gelin, Joe Farnsworth, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Marcus Miller, Mark Whitfield, Russell Hall, Ted Nash, and Wayne Escoffery. As a leader and a sideman, has performed at venues such as The Blue Note, The Montreux Jazz Festival, NPR Tiny Desk, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, The Jazz Gallery, and Smalls. He has also toured around the US and in Australia, Canada, France, Indonesia, Italy, Hong Kong, Peru, Singapore, and Switzerland. Esteban is currently a junior at the Juilliard School on a full scholarship, and he studies privately with Fred Hersch.

Esteban started playing the piano at age 4, and quickly found himself improvising and composing at a very young age. This led to the beginning of his jazz journey at age 6. At age 9, he began his studies at Jazz House Kids, and a year afterwards he attended the Manhattan School of Music precollege as a double major in jazz and classical piano. 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 award. Then, at 14, he was the youngest First Prize recipient at the 2017 Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. He entered various high school programs such as the Grammy Band in 2017 and 2018, the 2019 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, and was selected as a 2019 YoungArts Finalist. He also won a variety of classical piano competitions, including the 2019 MSM Precollege Philharmonic Concerto Competition, playing Prokofiev’s 1st Piano Concerto. After graduating from high school, he won the Grand Bohemian Prize at the 2022 American Jazz Pianist Competition, and was selected among five finalists for the prestigious 2023 American Pianist Association Competition.

Esteban also works as an avid composer, having composed over 50 original works, including a five movement suite for piano trio. He has garnered three ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Awards, and has won fifteen Downbeat Student Music Awards. In 2018, he was commissioned by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to write a big band arrangement for the Thelonious Monk 100th birthday celebration.

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. In 2021, he led a benefit concert for the GHESKIO Haitian Global Health Alliance at the Jazz Gallery, and raised $1400 for victims of the 2021 Haiti Earthquake.