People

Aeryn Jade Santillan (composer) 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. Aeryn 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, and more. Aeryn 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. When she’s not writing music or touring with her bands, she works as an Adjunct Professor at NYU and Sales and Marketing Assistant at Cantaloupe Music/Bang on a Can. She enjoys skateboarding, D&D, video games, and vegan junk food. She lives in Jersey City with her partner and two cats.