Oscar Castro-Neves

Oscar Castro-Neves (May 15, 1940 - September 27, 2013), was a Brazilian guitarist, arranger, and composer who is considered a founding figure in Bossa nova. He was born in Rio de Janeiro as one of triplets and formed a band with his brothers in his youth. At 16 he had a national hit with Chora Tua Tristeza. Many of the early Bossa Nova musicians began as teens so this was only slightly unusual. In 1962 he was in a Bossa Nova concert at Carnegie Hall, later he toured with Stan Getz and Sérgio Mendes. He went on to work with a diverse array of musicians including Billy Eckstine, Yo Yo Ma, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, João Gilberto, Eliane Elias, Lee Ritenour, Airto Moreira, Toots Thielemans, John Klemmer, Carol Welsman and Diane Schuur. During the 1970s and early 1980s he was member of the Paul Winter Consort.With Mendes, Oscar-Neves, was a key guitarist in the A&M release "Fool on the Hill" and continued with the classic "Stillness" which was to see the last Brasil '66 grouping. Oscar-Neves re-appeared with Sergio Mendes & Brasil'77 on the "Vintage '74" effort.

Oscar Castro

Oscar Castro Ramirez, born in Santiago (Chile) in 1947, is playwright, actor and director,director of the Aleph Theater.

Life

Oscar Castro founded the Aleph Theatre in Santiago in 1968 with fellow students. Self-taught and politically active, the Aleph wrote and staged a series of musical plays and produced satirical programmes for Chilean television. On tour in France at the time of the coup d’état in September 1973, the company presented La Trinchera del Supertricio (an allegory of the military coup ) in October 1974. As a result, several actors of the troupe were arrested, interrogated and tortured: two disappeared under interrogation and two others (Oscar Castro and his sister Marieta) were interned in concentration camps for two years. During his internment, Oscar created a new play each week for the «Viernes culturales» for his fellow inmates.

On his release in 1976, Oscar was exiled and sought asylum in France.
Since 1976, Oscar lives in Paris where he continues to create plays and write novels. The Aleph Theatre company, which he directs, is based in the Parisian suburb of Ivry sur Seine, where they have their own theatre space. Over the years, the Aleph Theatre company has become a myth and a reference for Latin-American theatre and Erase una vez un rey Once upon a time there was a king, written in 1971, has become today one of the most frequently performed plays throughout Central and Latin America.