Michéal Castaldo has always been a man who wears many hats.
Just before he enrolled in high school, his Grade 8 teacher, Mr. Quill, told him to “get involved.” And he followed that advice.
Castaldo’s self-driving philosophy has always been “yes.” In fact, he owes his success in large part to the simple fact that he says yes to whatever life throws at him. As a student at Oakwood Collegiate, that meant being involved in choir, orchestra, drama club, multicultural societies, and a floor hockey tournament fundraiser.
“I was rarely standing still,” says Castaldo. His Renaissance man status had clearly taken root, but his passion for music was always a top priority. Castaldo started broad, training in guitar, percussion, trumpet, piano and voice throughout his childhood and adolescence, though he admits that his driving motivation for mastering music was “to get the girl.”
Yet, through the haze of high school hormones, Castaldo still had enough sense to recognize that his velvet voice might just be his golden ticket in life.
After switching to Sir Sandford Fleming to finish half a semester early and extensive vocal and musical theory lessons, he was admitted to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., with a scholarship when he sang the religious aria “Panis Angelicus” and a jazz standard at his audition.
“Where some people may zig, I zag,” says Castaldo of staying one step off the beaten track.
It was at Berklee that he honed his already impressive melodic skills and picked up a knack for music production and composition.
After graduation, he packed his bags and hightailed it to New York City, a place that he says “matched [his] passion and intensity.”
Since arriving in the Big Apple in 1986, Castaldo has seen many ups and downs. He has firmly planted himself in the New York and international music scene as the CEO of Majestic Castle Music Productions, and has worked with artists like Grammy-winner José Feliciano, songwriter of the Christmas standard “Feliz Navidad” (yes, that “Feliz Navidad”).
He has recorded many songwriters and his own music through his label including his charting CD EP “Only Human” and six commercially released CDs including an album written after the loss of his father entitled, Aceto, meaning vinegar in Italian (vinegar is said to have healing properties in traditional Italian medicine).
He has a folio of Christmas carols set to hit the digital shelves of Amazon in October. He has a short documentary tribute to Cecil the Lion premiering at the Glendale International Film Festival this year, and he’ll be perfomring Christmas concerts over the holidays.
“Am I an overachiever? Yes. But when you’ve designed a life that you love living, none of it feels like work,” he says of his 16-hour days.
You can purchase his new digital single “Amo l’America” (“American Love Affair”) on Amazon and iTunes or stream it via Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal.
