Cindy Castillo

Belgium

Talented and inspiring, Cindy Castillo has been raising her visibility on the international organ scene through distinctive programmes that explore the possible dialogues between the organ and other artistic expressions such as dance, video or electronic music. Along these lines she conceived “Offrande”(Offering), presenting Carl Dreyer’s silent movie “The Passion of Joan of Arc” accompanied on the organ by Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Musical Offering”.

Or also “À contre-courants” (Against the current), which develops an auditory and visual adventure with video director Lise Bruyneel, based on the chorale “An Wasserflüssen Babylon”. Her activities as a recitalist have led her from Tokyo to New York and many European countries, without neglecting Africa (Lubumbashi cathedral). Thus she has already played or will do so in the near future in the Bozar series and at the Ars Musica Festival (both in Brussels), at the Philharmonic Hall in Liège, the Festival de Sablé and the Festival Toulouse les orgues (both in France), as well as the Metropolitan Arts Center and Suntory Hall (Tokyo).

Cindy Castillo is in touch with quite a few contemporary composers; several works have been dedicated to her by Claude Ledoux and Jean-Pierre Deleuze, whose compositions for organ and voice she has recorded with Aurélie Franck. The album entitled “Fragments”, which appeared on the Paraty label in July 2014, counts already as a must in the field of contemporary music with organ, earning the award “Octave de la musique contemporaine” in 2015. In September 2019 she released a new album on Cypres based on the piece « C#2 » composed for her by Pierre Slinckx.

Her degrees include First Prizes from the conservatoires of Brussels and Paris, a Master degree from Namur and a diploma of advanced studies in Strasbourg, having spent formative years with masters such as Benoît Mernier, Jean Ferrard, Christophe Mantoux, Michel Bouvard and Olivier Latry. Laureate of the Rotary Club, the Vocation Foundation, the Wernaers and Lacour Foundation, First Prize of the National Axion Classics 2000 Competition (aka Belfius Competition), she served as artist in residence at Sapporo Concert Hall in 2008-2009. In addition to her activities as a performer, Cindy Castillo can also count on five years experience as producer and host at Musiq3, the Francophone classical radio station in Belgium.

She teaches the organ with Hampus Lindwall at the IMEP Graduate School of Arts (Namur) in the framework of a new educational project baptized “OrgueStudio”.

Concurrently she serves as titular organist at the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels. Lise Bruyneel, 2015