Zaira Castillo is a pianist and sound artist whose work blurs the boundaries between performance, experimentation, and community engagement. While trained as a classical pianist her practice has evolved toward creating immersive experiences through contemporary classical music, electroacoustic works, improvisation, and interdisciplinary projects. Integrating electronics, lighting, gesture, and found objects, she explores new ways for performers and audiences to interact with sound, space, and the body.

Zaira has appeared across Chicago and beyond in venues such as Constellation, Elastic Arts, the Epiphany Center for the Arts, Roosevelt University, Northwestern University, and the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York. Festival and series appearances include SPLICE, New Music Chicago’s Impromptu Fest, the Frequency Series, Elastic Arts’ Pianist and a Partner Perhaps, and the 2025 Time:Spans Festival with Ensemble Dal Niente.

In 2023, she co-founded Duo Riso with clarinetist Evan Kopca, a collaboration that has already presented over 10 new works throughout Chicago. Her interest in accessibility and dialogue also informs community-based projects such as Identity through Sound, her graduate research commissioning piano works that explored how composers’ cultural backgrounds shaped their musical voices. The project combined short films with performances and was featured on the University of Georgia’s Spotlight on the Arts Festival.

An active educator, Zaira is a Steinway Educational Partner and teaches at the Music Conservatory of Illinois, mentoring the next generation of musicians.

When she is not performing or teaching, Zaira enjoys long walks, teaching yoga (RYT 200), and documenting the world through film photography.