Photo by Randi Thompson at the 2022 Tenney Symposium.

2025 Composer Symposium: July 8-15

Featured Composers:
Cecilia Arditto Delsoglio
​& Chris Castro
Cecilia Arditto Delsoglio was born in Buenos Aires in 1966. She studied music at the Julián Aguirre Conservatory, Banfield; Center for Advanced Studies in Contemporary Music (CEAMC), Buenos Aires and at the Amsterdam Conservatory (diploma with distinction). She studied composition with Silvia Goldberg, Gabriel Valverde, Mariano Etkin, Luis Arias, and Wim Henderickz. Analysis with Margarita Fernandez.
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She obtained various scholarships: Fondo Nacional de las Artes scholarship, Antorchas scholarship, first prize CEAMC composition competition Scholarship. She has received commissions from the NFPK in Holland, Orgelpark, Amsterdam, KNM Berlin, Borealis Festival Norway, Festival Rümlingen, in Switzerland, Music at the Anthology Festival, NYC and “Innovations in concert” in Quebec, among others. She carried out artist residencies in Boswil Switzerland, in the Camargo foundation in Cassis, in ACA Foundation in Palma de Mallorca, Ensemble Aleph forum in Paris and recently in KonventZero, in Berga, Barcelona.
Her music has been performed in Europe, Latin America, the U.S.A, Canada, Australia, and China.

Cecilia has won the following competitions: New Maker Ensemble Call (London), Low Frequency Trio composition competition (Mexico) and second prize in Wilde Lieder Marx Music Competition 2018 by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Cecilia won first prize in the prestigious Rychenberg 2020 Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition in Switzerland with her piece “Tissue”. Her work “Musique Concrète” represented the Netherlands at ISCM 2022 in New Zealand. She won the first prize in the competition organized by the National Opera House in Mannheim, Germany 2021 to write a new opera based on the novel L ’ètranger by Albert Camus. Recently she won the first prize at the Musical Composition Contest ARTSOM 2022, Sueca, Valencia.

She has lectured on her music at the UDK University of Arts Berlin, Sound-Forum Amsterdam, Astor Piazzolla Conservatory Buenos Aires, Museum of Contemporary Art, Mendoza, Le Gesú Theater Montreal, among others. She has been invited as a composer in residence at Charlotte New Music Festival 2021, US,  John Donald Robb Composers’ Symposium, US 2021 and at the Third National Meeting of Musical Composition 2021, Argentina. Recently she has been invited as a lecturer to the laboratory-atelier series Sound Arguments 2023, by the Orpheus Institute, Ghent (BE), and ACPA, University of Leiden (NL).
She has published several articles in specialized publications in Latin America and various European countries. Her music has been object of study by many scholars and researchers all over the world.
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Since 2002 Cecilia lives in The Netherlands
Chris Castro is a composer, double bassist, theorist, and educator residing in Southern California. He is a recipient of the 2023 Fromm Music Foundation Commission from Harvard University and Chamber Music America’s 2021 Classical Commissioning Award. His music has been described as “on par with Varèse” (anonymous CMA juror) and “at once celebratory and solemn” (San Francisco Classical Voice). His music draws from the rich tradition of Western Art Music, from Johannes Ockeghem’s Missa Prolationum to John Coltrane’s Ascension. As a new music advocate, Chris serves on the artistic advisory board for the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble, and will be premiering two solo double bass works written for him by Phil Acimovic and Linda Catlin Smith in the fall of 2024. Chris holds degrees from the Juilliard School (double bass and composition) and a PhD from the University of California, Davis in composition and music theory. He lectures for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Upbeat Live series. He is an Assistant Professor of Composition at Chapman University.
Interested in sponsoring the Symposium?
Please contact us directly at [email protected].  
Thank you for considering our project for a monetary donation!

Previous Guests:

Levi Raleigh Brown
Joshua Carro
Chris Castro
Richard Drehoff Jr.
Rosalind Hutchinson
Maxwell R. Lafontant
Sky Macklay
Kimberly Osberg
Catalina Rueda