A 2025 City of Chicago Individual Artists Program awardee, guitarist and composer Brian Citro, has been playing and writing music on the guitar for 30 years. He studied with renowned guitarist and educator Fareed Haque at Northern Illinois University. A long-time member of The Drastics, he’s performed and toured with JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound, Ted Sirota’s Heavyweight Dub!, Ackah Blay in Ghana, and many others. He leads a jazz quartet with Nick Mazzarella on saxophones, Quin Kirchner on drums, and Matt Ulery on bass, and he co-leads The Hey Lows with multi-instrumentalist and producer Lance Loiselle.

His recent album, Acoustic Pastime on ears&eyes Records, features solo guitar arrangements of Brian’s compositions and Thelonious Monk tunes. In the past, he made music as Salamander and Video Gum Culture with Charles Gorczynski, Nate Lepine, and Mark Van Ziegler. Other projects include short video works with award-winning poet (and his uncle), Christopher Citro.

Brian is also a human rights lawyer and has lived, travelled, and played music in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.