Zosha Di Castri (born 1985)
Zosha Di Castri was born in Calgary, Alberta. She earned a Bachelors of Music in Piano Performance and Composition at McGill University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts at Columbia University, where she is now an Assistant Professor of Composition.
Zosha Di Castri’s music reveals a modernist sensibility but with frequent surprises. Her compositions have episodes of lyrical beauty, sudden tumultuousness, enticing almost-toe-tapping rhythms, intricate counterpoint, and thrilling crescendos.
Here is her 2016 String Quartet No. 1:
It is described on her website like this:
Both purely abstract and sonically concrete, this quartet explores virtuosic shifts between quickly contrasting modes of expression, while demanding a physical internalization of a dense thicket of activity. Escaping the agitation and frenzy are moments of melodic beauty, microtonal introspection, and a delicate fabric of time-suspending harmonics.
This seems to be Zosha Di Castri’s most recent composition. It’s for an ensemble of 13 musicians (including two percussionists) entitled “time>>T. - - I. - - M.(time) - - E.” but conveniently simplified as “Time-Time-Time.”