Justin Casinghino

Justin Casinghino is a Lecturer in the Department of Composition and Theory at Boston University, a Lecturer in Composition at Keene State College, the Director of the Young Artists’ Composition Program and Electroacoustic Composition Workshop at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and teaches on the faculty of the Rivers School Conservatory in Weston, MA. He has also held positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis University, the Longy School of Music at Bard College, and University of Massachusetts Lowell, and is regularly recruited as a guest speaker on a variety of topics including composition, popular music and music education. Along with composing in both the acoustic and electroacoustic realms, his primary teaching and research interests include the practical application of tonal and post-tonal theoretical concepts to active performance interpretation, and the building and integration of interactive systems within a musical setting.

Casinghino composes in a variety of genres, striving to create works that are lyrical, rich in harmony and possess a sound structural integrity. Also a perform in the worlds of jazz, blues, soul and rock, these styles are often present in Casinghino’s concert pieces, but commonly at subtle levels. His studies of composition include work with, amongst others, Gunther Schuller, Lukas Foss, Theodore Antoniou and Richard Cornell. Dr. Casinghino has had pieces requested and performed by groups including the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Family Concert Series, Boston Musica Viva, the Rivers Symphony Orchestra, ALEA III, the Longy Chamber Orchestra, the Lorelei Vocal Ensemble and Vento Chiaro.  His music has been commissioned via the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Free for All Concert Fund, has been featured on programs of the Rivers School Conservatory’s Annual Seminar on Contemporary Music for the Young, the International Society of Bassists, the International Trumpet Guild, the North American Saxophone Alliance and SEAMUS, and has received recent premieres and performances in venues including the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, multiple appearances in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Concert Hall, the Symphony Center in Chicago and D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Casinghino performs throughout the New England area on piano, Hammond organ, SATB saxophones and as a vocalist with a number of ensembles in various genres. Justin lives outside of Boston with his wife and four daughters. Samples of Casinghino’s music can be heard at www.jdcas.com.

Works

• Remembering the Many – for Wind Ensemble, published by World Projects, Inc.
• Sitting in the House of a Giant – for Wind Ensemble, published by World Projects, Inc.
• …not but a seed… – for SATB choir, published by World Projects, Inc.
• …and so then I threw the stone. – for Trumpet and Live Signal Processing, released by MSR Classics included on Rise Above by Andrew Stetson, trumpet.