Chris Casillas
Chris Casillas, born and raised in Houston, Texas, is a composer, songwriter, and performer of music. Starting out, he was a just kid who used to hit random notes on an electric piano, now he finds himself scoring films while studying at New York University's Screen Scoring Master's Program.
In the time between, he began his musical journey as a self taught pianist/keyboardist who always focused more on learning rock songs by ear. When he reached middle school, Chris began learning saxophone from his father who was also a saxophone player and a middle school band director. When he reached high school, he really began to shape his musical passion. He played saxophone in his high school bands, and worked in bands outside of school on both keyboards and saxophone. He also formed a saxophone quartet, in which he was both performer and arranger of the pieces they played. He also began songwriting and composing music for large ensembles in his spare time.
He graduated and traveled to New Orleans to pursue a degree in Music Industry Studies from Loyola University. He continued his path as a performer, writing his own songs, learning the oboe and all the other woodwinds along the way, and learning the styles and nuances of jazz music. He played and recorded with professional bands in the New Orleans area. Through his degree and real world experience as a performer, he learned about music production and music tech.
As an elective he decided to take a class about film scoring-- A class that would greatly influence his life. This class reinvigorated his love for musical composition and also opened his eyes to the wonders of writing music to picture. He began noticing the artistry and nuances of the music in movies more than he ever had before and he fell in love with the whole process. From this point, he knew he wanted to be a film composer. He is currently studying film composing at NYU Steinhardt and is loving every second of it. By the end of the summer he will have scored six different student films by students from four different universities.