Geoffrey Castle

Last updated
Geoffrey Castle
Geoffrey Castle performing.jpg
Background information
Birth nameJeffrey Sick
Origin Kirkland, WA
Occupation(s)Musician, Violinist
Instruments Violin
Associated acts Blues Traveler [1]
Website www.geoffreycastle.com

Geoffrey Castle is a musician and violinist based in Kirkland, WA. Castle performs on the electric six-string violin [2] music from a range of genres, including Hendrix, Celtic, Bluegrass, and Mozart.

Contents

Early life and education

Castle, born Jeffrey Sick, began playing violin at age nine in New York City. He studied privately and performed in school orchestras, all-city and all-state orchestras, and in his high school marching band in Alexandria, Virginia. He began solo performances on the electric violin at the age of 17. Castle earned money as a street musician while attending Columbia University where he received a Cum Laude degree in English and Comparative Literature. [3] [4]

Career

Geoffrey Castle.jpg

Castle has released seven albums on his own Twisted Fiddle Music label and four albums as a member of Children of the Revolution. As a session player he has contributed to many projects. [5] [6] [7] In 1998 he played on Jeanette Alexander's first album, Still Point. [8]

For several years Castle fronted the band Guarneri Underground. [9] He co-produced a self-titled album for this group in 2000. [10]

Castle has played as part of a variety of live productions, including the Broadway production of M. Butterfly to sharing the stage with members of YES, Heart and Queen, [11] as well as regular local performances in Kirkland. [12] Additionally, Castle has performed with visiting musicians from several countries, [13] and since 2011 has played in concerts with Lucy Wu, jinghu player and singer from the Beijing Opera, in an "East Meets West: Violin Meets Jinghu" collaboration. [14]

Castle organizes a series of "Celtic Christmas" and "St. Patrick's Day Celebration" concerts in theaters throughout the Northwest US. These performances are well attended and often sold out. [15]

Geoffrey Castle's music, both as a band leader and a solo artist, has been featured on radio and TV across the US, [16] and his violin work has been included in a number of movie and TV soundtracks. [17]

Community outreach

Castle's schedule includes performances and workshops at schools around the United States, raising funds for student music programs. [2] Castle, along with 400 members of school orchestras in the Seattle area, set a world record for the most string players under one roof. [18] [19] He also plays yearly in All-State WMEA and All Northwest.

Personal life

Castle is married to artist Shannon Connor Castle.

Discography

Solo albums

Contributing Musician

DVDs

Related Research Articles

Isaac Stern American violinist

Isaac Stern was an American violinist.

Niccolò Paganini Italian violinist and composer (1782–1840)

NiccolòPaganini was an Italian violinist and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best known of his compositions and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.

Itzhak Perlman Israeli-American violinist

Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-American violinist, conductor, and music teacher. Perlman has performed worldwide, and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a State Dinner at the White House honoring Queen Elizabeth II, and at President Barack Obama's inauguration. He has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has received 16 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Emmy Awards.

Suzuki method Music teaching method

The Suzuki method is a music curriculum and teaching philosophy dating from the mid-20th century, created by Japanese violinist and pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki (1898–1998). The method aims to create an environment for learning music which parallels the linguistic environment of acquiring a native language. Suzuki believed that this environment would also help to foster good moral character.

Edgar Meyer American bassist and composer (born 1960)

Edgar Meyer is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won five Grammy Awards and been nominated seven times.

Guarneri Quartet

The Guarneri Quartet was an American string quartet founded in 1964 at the Marlboro Music School and Festival. It was admired for its rich, warm, complex tone and its bold, dramatic interpretations of the quartet literature, with a particular affinity for the works of Beethoven and Bartók. Through teaching at Harpur College, University of Maryland, Curtis Institute of Music, and at Marlboro, the Guarneri players helped nurture interest in quartet playing for a generation of young musicians. The group's extensive touring and recording activities, coupled with its outreach efforts to engage audiences, contributed to the rapid growth in the popularity of chamber music during the 1970s and 1980s. The quartet is notable for its longevity: the group performed for 45 years with only one personnel change, when cellist David Soyer retired in 2001 and was replaced by his student Peter Wiley. The Guarneri Quartet disbanded in 2009.

Mark OConnor American violinist and composer

Mark O'Connor is an American violinist and composer whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical.

Salvatore Accardo Italian violinist and conductor

Salvatore Accardo is an Italian violinist and conductor, who is known for his interpretations of the works of Niccolò Paganini.

Biagio Marini was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer in the first half of the seventeenth century.

Second Coming (band) American rock band

Second Coming was an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1990. They relocated to Seattle, Washington around 1992 and released their debut album L.O.V.Evil in 1994. This band underwent several lineup changes throughout its existence with drummer James Bergstrom and bassist Johnny Bacolas ostensibly being the nucleus of the band, as they were the only members who appeared on every album. The two of them have been friends since childhood and they had also formed the rhythm section in an early incarnation of Alice in Chains that also consisted of vocalist Layne Staley and guitarist Nick Pollock; they called themselves Alice N' Chains.

John Dalley is an American violinist. He was raised in a musical family. His father was an orchestra conductor, violinist, composer, instrumental teacher, and music educator. His mother, from Bloomington, Illinois, was a cellist, music teacher, and music publisher.

Anne Akiko Meyers American violinist (born 1970)

Anne Akiko Meyers is an American concert violinist. Meyers was the top-selling classical instrumentalist of 2014 on Billboard's traditional classical charts.

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground is an indie band started by Kirk Huffman and Kyle O'Quin of Gatsbys American Dream. Like Gatsbys, the band is influenced by a wide variety of musical genres. Though the band only has three official members, they have been known to perform with as many as 11 additional musicians on stage.

Ida Kavafian is an American classical violinist and violist.

Johnny Bacolas American musician (born 1969)

Johnny Bacolas, is a composer, musician, producer, music video director, and videographer. He is best known for his work with the post-grunge band Second Coming. He was also a founding member of the band Sleze, which was later renamed Alice N' Chains, The Crying Spell, Lotus Crush, and The Rumba Kings.

Martin John Feveyear is a British record producer and audio engineer based in Seattle, Washington. Beginning as a singer-songwriter and musician, Feveyear soon began recording work for artists in both the UK and US before moving to Seattle at the age of 25. Together with Christian Fulghum, he opened Jupiter Studios in Seattle in 1996. He has since worked with artists and groups — producing, engineering, arranging, mixing, mastering and additional instruments — such as Mark Lanegan, Mudhoney, Duff McKagan's Loaded, Kings of Leon, The Presidents of the United States of America, Queens of the Stone Age, Amber Pacific, Jesse Sykes, Sirens Sister, Green Apple Quick Step, Nevada Bachelors, The Minus 5, and Brandi Carlile, among others.

The Curtis String Quartet was an American string quartet based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Andrew Joslyn is an American composer, orchestrator, film scorer, and violinist in various genres.

Dover Quartet American string quartet

The Dover Quartet is an American string quartet. It was formed at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008 and its members are graduates of both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Rice University Shepherd School of Music. Its name is taken from the piece Dover Beach by Samuel Barber. The quartet consists of violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violist Milena Pajaro-Van de Stadt, and cellist Camden Shaw. In 2020, the quartet was appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music as ensemble-in-residence. Their faculty residency integrates teaching and mentorship, the quartet’s artist management, and the creation of digital content, all fostered at Curtis in a holistic way. Additionally, they hold residencies with the Kennedy Center, Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Artosphere, and the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.

The Rumba Kings is an original American world music band co-founded in 2015 in Seattle, Washington, by producer/songwriter/bassist and former Capitol Records recording artist, Johnny Bacolas,(best known for being a member of the band Second Coming), and guitarist/songwriter, George Stevens. The songwriting is strongly influenced by Latin and Mediterranean music, and is mostly nylon-guitar driven, influenced by such artists as Yanni and The Gipsy Kings.Regarding the band's songs, Stevens states, "If it isn't beautiful, it doesn't make the cut," while Bacolas describes the band's music as "passionate and beautiful."

References

  1. "Stanwood-Camano fair boasts big-time entertainment". The Daily Herald. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 Andrew Wellner (Feb 11, 2012). "Geoffrey Castle:Rock the Butte". Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman .
  3. "Heart, Art & Soul: Castle headlines elementary school art program benefit". Journal of the San Juan Islands.
  4. "Geoffrey Castle's Electric Violin Sings an Unexpected Tune". Patch.com .
  5. Deborah Stone. "Geoffrey Castle inspires with his music". Woodinville Weekly".
  6. JASMIN, ERNEST. "Violinist promises 'cliché-free' concert". Tacoma Weekly . Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  7. "London Tone Music’s 52 Week Project Creates Special Night at Triple Door". Northwest Music Scene, May 5, 2015 Tara Woods
  8. "Album Review: Jeanette Alexander - Walk in the Sun". MainlyPiano.com, Review by Michael Debbage.
  9. "Mirth's in Music at the New Wine Stage". Eugene Register-Guard - Sep 14, 2003
  10. "Albums" Michael Paoletta (16 December 2000). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 27–. ISSN   0006-2510.
  11. "A&E briefs - Dec. 16, 2015". Sequim Gazette.
  12. "Castle, providing Wilde nights at the Rover since 2008". Kirkland Reporter, By TJ MARTINELL, reporter, June 4, 2014
  13. "'Revolution' -- a tight band with members from all over the map". Seattle Post-Intelligencer .
  14. "Electric Violinist Geoffrey Castle at Tim Noah Thumbnail Theater, Snohomish". News of Mill Creek.
  15. "Geoffrey Castle's Celtic Christmas comes to Everett". The Herald .
  16. "Geoffrey Castle Performs". Northwest Prime Time.
  17. "Geoffrey Castle Our Own Eastside Resident Organically Climbs The Ladder Of Musical Success". Seattle Post-Intelligencer .
  18. "It's official: String Jam '10 earns Guinness World Record for largest string ensemble under one roof". Redmond Reporter.
  19. Prosser, Keegan. "Geoffrey Castle Electrifies St. Paddy's Day". Seattle Weekly . Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  20. "SMI Featured Artist of the Month (June): Geoffrey Castle Triple Door Show Review (SMI Radio interview & SMI TV video) - SMI (Seattle Music Insider)". Seattle Music Insider.
  21. "Liberation - Children of the Revolution". AllMusic . Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  22. "The Sin". AllMusic.
  23. "To Agalma". AllMusic.
  24. "The Instrumental and Vocal Sessions, Vol I". AllMusic.
  25. "The Instrumental Sessions, Vol II". AllMusic.
  26. "Dance with me". AllMusic.
  27. "Mirame". AllMusic.
  28. "Geoffrey Castle Triple Door Show Review". Seattle Music Insider. Retrieved 18 January 2016.