David Castillo serves as an Assistant Professor of Music and is the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities and the Applied Music Coordinator at Moorpark College. His pedagogy is a translation of his vast, industry-expert experience into accessible, relevant, and practical skill sets for learners of all types. Within the first two years of his choral ensembles, he premiered commissions from Matthew Brown and Vicente Chavarría; led recent works of Juhi Bansal, Saunder Choi, Germaine Franco, John Powell, Fahad Sadat, Diana Syrse and Eric Whitacre; and conducted the grand works Ariel Ramirez’s Misa Criolla, Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem. He has a formidable, multi-genre applied voice studio and teaches courses in vocal technique, music appreciation, opera, musical theatre, music business, and music industry. His students have been accepted and received scholarship into USC, UCLA, CCM, Berklee College of Music, MSM, Pepperdine, Chapman, and CalArts. At the Neighborhood Music School in Boyle Heights, he resided as a Teaching Artist with a vocal studio of all ages and directed the CORO, a youth choir he founded. Since 2007, his 1:1 voice studio develops vocalists of all genres and experiences.
David dives into Hollywood on-camera and in-studio as an actor, a musician, and acting as a musician. He appeared on-camera in several national commercial campaigns, on Amazon Prime Video’s Hunters, in a Camila Cabello music video playing his trumpet, in a pop-opera group on America’s Got Talent, and on the 97th Oscars performing Mozart’s “Lacrymosa” for the In Memoriam and backup to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s “Defying Gravity” and to Conan O’Brien’s opening monologue “I Won’t Waste Time.” His voiceover work can be experienced on commercials, on podcasts, and in dozens of characters for several Netflix series’. As a session singer, he recorded the soundtracks of Lorne Balfe, Kris Bowers, Germaine Franco, Ludwig Göransson, James Newton Howard, Alan Menken, Hector Pereira, John Powell, Xander Rodzinkski, John Williams, and Christopher Willis in works such as Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, The Call of the Wild, Despicable Me 4, Encanto, Haunted Mansion, How to Train Your Dragon (live action), Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Marvels, Superman, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Wicked: Part I, Willow, and The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse.
As a soloist on-stage, David’s favorite highlights include performances in Paris, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Rady Shell with the San Diego Symphony, Severance Hall with The Cleveland Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall with conductors Paolo Bortolameolli, Christian Campos, Michelle Di Russo, Gustavo Dudamel, Grant Gershon, Louis Langrée, Rafael Payare, Franz Welser-Möst, and Eric Whitacre. He loved performing Héctor in Germaine Franco’s “Un Poco Loco” from Disney’s Coco with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Neighborhood Music School, Germaine on percussion, and her original band from the movie in a Gala honoring her at Walt Disney Concert Hall. For two seasons, he hosted over a dozen performances with the San Diego Symphony. He traveled with Schubert's Winterreise for years performing it in Paris, New Orleans, Pasadena, Los Angeles, and in a choreographed version with Luminario Ballet. He premiered Eric Whitacre’s The Gift of the Magi as Jim, Shawn Kirchner’s Songs of Ascent as King David/Narrator, and Diana Syrse’s “Alas de noche” all with the LA Master Chorale; Guerrerio’s OC Fan Tutte as Will with Salastina; and Louis Andriessen’s Theatre of the World as Goethe and Annie Gosfield/Yuval Sharon’s War of the Worlds as Officer both with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
As a producer, he focuses on numerous senses and perspectives as entry points to the important, challenging conversations our communities need to surface. His productions of Seven Deadly Sins and INNERVISIONS:revisitedcollaborated with dozens of New Orleans’ best chefs and powerhouse movers and vocalists. His first collaboration in fashion began as producer and performer of Project Runway winner/composer Kentaro Kameyama and writer William Nedved’s The Passion of McQueen. He joined the duo again to perform their next project Medusa at the Getty Villa and Deaf West Theatre. On a note outside production, David recently continued with Deaf West Theatre to workshop several stages of Beethoven's Fidelio as Don Pizarro with the LA Phil. David and Kentaro created and produced the fashion/art exhibition “for anna.”
David received a Master of Music from the USC Thornton School of Music and Bachelor of Music from Loyola University New Orleans, graduating with distinction from both institutions. He trained at Anthony Meindl’s Acting Workshop, Charlie Adler’s Acting for Animation, the Sign Language Center, The MoCap Vaults, The HALP Network Entertainment Academy, The Voicecaster, Adventures in Voice Acting, Killian’s Commercial Workshop, New Orleans Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, The Yard Muay Thai, Wild Card Boxing Gym, Bitter Root Pottery, and the Aspen Music Festival and School.
He is a member of the Recording Academy, SAG-AFTRA, AGMA, AFT, and MACCC.