Jesús Castro-Balbi
Jesús Castro-Balbi is an internationally recognized cellist, pedagogue, higher education and community leader. As of July 2021, Dr. Castro-Balbi assumed the position of director of Kennesaw State University's Dr. Bobbie Bailey School of Music. Biography. Background. Of Peruvian heritage and raised in France, Jesús Castro-Balbi graduated from the Conservatoire de Lyon, Indiana University Bloomington, the Yale School of Music, and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School. His mentors include Iseut Chuat, Marc Coppey, Jean Deplace, Aldo Parisot, Janos Starker, and members of the Amadeus, Borodine, Juilliard, Ravel and  Tokyo String Quartets. Teaching. Dr. Castro-Balbi is a leader of international repute committed to building communities through the arts and education. As the newly appointed director at Kennesaw State University’s Dr. Bobbie Bailey School of Music, he manages and leads all aspects of the School. Prior to joining Kennesaw State University, Dr. Castro-Balbi served as a professor and faculty leader at Texas Christian University. There, he built an internationally sought-after cello program. As a proponent of progressive programs and pedagogies, he developed the curriculum and led initiatives leveraging inclusive excellence, educational technology, multidisciplinary collaboration, community-based  learning, and student research. Meanwhile, he served as founding artistic director of the TCU Cellofest and of the Faculty & Friends Chamber Music Series, raising the profile of the School of Music in the discipline and in the community. A renowned educator, he has guest taught at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, Paris Conservatoire, Leipzig and Stuttgart Hochschule, for the Japan Cello Society, at The Juilliard School, and at the Yale School of Music. Additionally, he has adjudicated at the Lynn Harrell Competition (Dallas), the Sphinx Competition (Michigan), and at the Aiqin Bei (China), Lutoslawski (Poland) and Carlos Prieto (Mexico ) international cello competitions. Leadership. In addition to his pedagogical pursuits Dr. Castro-Balbi is a dedicated university citizen and has led campus-wide forums on academic profile, budget, employee compensation, and strategic planning. As Faculty Senate chair at Texas Christian University, he engaged all stakeholders on a range of initiatives that moved the institution forward, including the creation of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion University Committee. As a member of the 2018-19 cohort of American Council on Education Fellows, he developed higher education leadership capacity with the senior executive at the University of Miami and at campuses across the  nation. At Miami, his focus was on academic innovation, administrative excellence, and strategic plan implementation. Additionally, he completed the Management Development Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Performance. A critically acclaimed concert cellist, he has performed in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia, collaborating in chamber music with Arkady Fomin, David Korevaar, Henning Kraggerud, Gloria Lin and Michael Shih, and as a member of the Caminos del Inka String Quartet, the Clavier Trio, and the Lin / Castro-Balbi Duo. As a soloist, he has partnered with conductors Giancarlo Andretta, Linus Lerner, Richard McKay, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Arild  Remmereit, Joel Sachs, Gregory Vajda, and the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra; the Dallas Chamber Symphony; the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra; the Leipzig Radio Orchestra; and the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru. He has been featured at New York’s Alice Tully Hall, over a dozen times at Carnegie Hall, at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.  Dr. Castro-Balbi has long been a strong proponent of new music, as an integral part of the human experience. His repertoire stretches from  Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul and Arlington Jones’ Soul Unity Suite to Lutoslawski’s Cello Concerto. To date, he has presented 53 premiere performances, the world premiere recording of 19 works, and is the dedicatee of 19 compositions, including works by Esteban Benzecry, Martin Blessinger, Fang Dongqing, Blaise Ferrandino, Kotaro Kobayashi, Till Meyn, Octavio Vázquez, Hailey Woodrow, and Samuel Zyman. Other highlights include: the New York premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Cello Concerto Kai; the first recording of the complete music for cello and piano by Robert Rodriguez; and the premieres, with Germán Gutiérrez and the TCU Symphony Orchestra, of  Edgar Valcárcel’s Concerto Indio and of Jimmy López’s cello concerto, Lord of the Air, and the subsequent recording of the latter for Harmonia Mundi with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra led by Miguel Harth-Bedoya.  Controversies. In 2022, Dr. Castro-Balbi did away with all zero credit-hour classes in the Dr. Bobbie Bailey School of Music, depriving many non-music majors of the financial aid they need to participate in the school’s ensembles. Dr. Castro-Balbi has also made derogatory comments towards certain aspects of the Dr. Bobbie Bailey School of Music, stating that “marching band is  not real music” and “we need to get jazz out of the ghetto.” Choices and comments like the ones listed above gave Dr. Castro-Balbi a negative relationship with his students by limiting their opportunities to grow artistically.