Elias Castro is a drummer and percussionist from Colombia. In 2021 he proudly joined the SoulTone family since he found that these had the sound he was looking. for he started his music career at the age of 13. He grew great interest in drums early on and began private lessons with a teacher. He played at his local church in Cartagena for five years. In playing at the church, he got plenty of practice for drumming and became more comfortable in different music genres. Elias also has met many successful artists during this time and took lessons with them. At the age of 16, Elias started a band named, “Somos Uno”. This band motivated Elias to be more creative in composing music and improved his leadership skills. He toured across Colombia in more than 20 cities from community churches with 50 people to big arenas with 15,000+ people.
When he was in high school, he played with six different musical ensembles, including the Comfenalco big band. This brought great opportunities, like playing in an International Jazz Festival in 2015 and hearing about great colleges in the United States. During a performance with the big band, he was approached by the Vice President of Northwestern State University about auditioning for a scholarship opportunity. Elias prepared a piece and recorded it for the University and turned it in. After a few months he was accepted into the school and received a scholarship. Two weeks after he got to the United States, he was invited to play in a band and got to perform in many states. This band helped him get more comfortable in United States and it challenged him in a way for improvement. During his four years at NSU he played in a variety of instrument ensembles like the NSU orchestra, wind ensembles, Men’s choir, was the lead drummer in the Jazz Orchestra, he played vibraphone, snare, and drumset for the marching band. He had the opportunity to perform at PASIC which is (one of the largest drum and percussion events in the world – “the Percussive Arts Society International Convention”) 3 times. The last time was a soloist for the 2022 drum set competition where he was one of the semifinalist. He was also part of the Sweet Tea band for about three years performing mainly latinjazz and salsa music across Louisiana. He is currently living in the DFW Tx where he works as a freelance drummer recording for different bands and performing gospel and worship music on the weekends at his church.