Tina Castellanos

Christina Castellanos is the Assistant Professor of Flute at Brigham Young University.

A proud native of Bountiful, Utah, Christina’s primary teacher was Nancy Toone, and she later received her Bachelors and Masters degrees, graduating Magna Cum Laude as the Outstanding Senior and Summa Cum Laude as the Outstanding Graduate, with Dr. Richard Soule at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas while also serving as president of Sigma Alpha Iota and the Las Vegas Flute Club.

Since then, Christina has enjoyed a prosperous and diverse musical career.  After becoming 2nd Flutist of The Las Vegas Philharmonic at the age of 22 and later appointed to Principal Flutist, Christina quickly established herself as a top call freelance musician on the Las Vegas Strip, playing hundreds of shows over a 6 year run of Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular, as well as backing countless headliners – most notably: Placido Domingo, Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra Jr., Andrea Bocelli, Harry Connick Jr., Weird Al Yankovic, and Seth MacFarlane.  She has had the pleasure of playing under the direction of Itzhak Perlman and Michael Giacchino, and shared the stage with artists such as STING, Ben Folds, Kristen Chenoweth, Renee Fleming, The Beach Boys, LeAnn Rimes, Arturo Sandoval, Il Divo, Gentri, Kansas, The Who, and Journey.

Besides her duties as Principal Flutist the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Christina can be heard as principal flutist of The Nevada Ballet Theater, Salt Lake Symphony, and solo flutist of Sinfonia Salt Lake as well as very frequent performances with the Utah Symphony, Utah Opera, Ballet West Orchestra, Boise Philharmonic, Reno Philharmonic, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra at Temple Square for the Tabernacle Choir, the TAD Wind Symphony in Japan, and many off Broadway musical productions.

While Christina enjoys immensely playing with orchestras and freelancing, one of her biggest passions is solo and chamber music work.  As a soloist, not only has Christina performed many of the great “standard” classic pieces with bands and orchestras alike, but she works hard to contribute building great flute repertoire through commissions such as Stacy Garrop’s “Phoenix Rising”, which she recently performed as a soloist at the National Flute Association Convention.

As an educator, Christina has served as adjunct professor of flute at the Snow College, Horne School of Music, Utah Valley University, and assistant flute instructor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  As a clinician, Christina has been a guest artist at Utah State University, Salem Youth Symphony, Anna Maria College Music Institute, The Utah Flute Association, and The Blackbird Music Project in California to name a few.  Besides her studio teaching, Christina has published hundreds of instructional videos online for Musician’s Toolkit and Connect Through Music.

Christina has also continued to make community service a priority as past President of The Utah Flute Association and as a facilitator for “The Jed Moss Collaborative Pianist Scholarship”, endowed in perpetuity at The University of Utah.

When Christina isn’t teaching or performing, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Chris, co-owner and solo horn of Boston Brass, and their two beautiful children, Lily and Orion.