Bio
Aeryn Jade Santillan (she/her) is a composer, guitarist, and bassist whose work is heavily influenced by the DIY punk scene and actively aims to blur the lines between band/ensemble and song/composition.
AJ performs bass and vocals in Massa Nera, an experimental screamo quartet who’s toured in the USA, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan. Along with composer/guitarist Andrew Noseworthy, she co-founded this place is actually the worst, an experimental mathcore duo, and post-genre DIY label, people | places | records. She’s been commissioned by 45th Parallel Universe, Bang on a Can, Del Sol String Quartet, Gabriela Lena Frank’s Creative Academy of Music, ~Nois, percussionist Adam Groh, and more.
AJ holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Columbia College Chicago and a Master of Music in Theory and Composition degree from New York University. Previous mentors include Gabriela Lena Frank, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, Marcos Balter, David Reminick, Drew Baker, and Ilya Levinson. AJ has been a fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Toronto Creative Music Lab, and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music.
When she’s not writing music and touring with her bands, she works as Program Manager at Luna Composition Lab and the Events Coordinator & Adjunct Professor at NYU. She enjoys skateboarding, RPGs, video games, and vegan junk food. She lives in Jersey City, NJ with her partner and two cats.
Photo by Wendy De Armas
How to pronounce my name:
Aeryn = AIR-in | Jade = JAYD | Santillan = sahn-ti-YAHN