Photo by James White
Photo by Asya Schween
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About Isto
Christopher White, also known as Isto, is a musician and music teacher currently based in Syracuse, NY. He is primarily a guitarist/vocalist/songwriter, but he also plays and/or teaches ukulele, Hawaiian guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass guitar, trumpet, harmonica and piano. He plays many different styles of music, but is best known for his jazz and ragtime guitar with crooning, his fingerstyle arrangements of classic American song, his humorous and thoughtful original songs, and his stage antics. Isto has over 24,000 subscribers on youtube, where he has been posting music videos since 2006. He has taught music to several hundred people of all ages (including 2 Grammy nominees); written over a thousand songs; composed music, sung, or played guitar for numerous independent films (including one, Pogonophobia, that screened at the Cannes Film Festival); brought early 20th-century Hawaiian music to various Brooklyn and Manhattan venues with King Isto's Tropical String Band; taught group music lessons at Brooklyn's Jalopy Theatre and School of Music since 2012; provided guitar music for the video game Red Dead Redemption 2; provided the singing voice for several toys, including a 36-inch Santa Claus that was available in Cracker Barrels across North America. One of his songs ("On the PATH to Newark (You Might Just Fall In Love)") was played in NJ PATH stations every hour on the hour on Valentine's Day, 2020. He has performed on Broadway (in the subway), across the street from CBGB's, and in the office building next to Carnegie Hall. One of his bands was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal (parenthetically), and the back of his head has appeared in the New York Times. Originally from Hamilton, a small town in the Leatherstocking Region of New York State, Isto began studying guitar with local legend Ed Vollmer in 1993 at the age of 9. Later, he went on to study Music at Wesleyan University with a concentration in composition. While at Wesleyan, he was able to study under Tony Lombardozzi, Neely Bruce, Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier, and many other great musicians. He wrote many songs and short pieces of music while he was there, and a 20-minute piece for string quartet. After graduating in 2006, Isto moved to Brooklyn, where he began teaching guitar and ukulele full time. He moved to Syracuse in 2023 with his wife and children. He has released 15 albums of original music, and also a Christmas album (I'm Dreaming of a Chris Whitemas). Isto is available for online lessons in guitar, ukulele, songwriting, and voice. He is also available for in-person lessons in Syracuse, NY, and occasional lessons in Brooklyn. You can email him at lumberjackisto@yahoo.com. Isto's Patreon account, created as a way of supporting Isto's youtube output, includes lessons on all kinds of musical things. Sign up here to support Isto's youtube videos and gain access to patron-exclusive lessons. You can follow Isto on Spotify, Youtube, Bandcamp, Instagram, Facebook, Patreon, and Threads. My original youtube account with some of my older videos can be found here. Quotes: "As students and residents listened to him spin unusual fairy tales about everyday life, Isto's attitude became contagious. As he sang 'I'm a Werewolf Over You,' howling through a transformation process, Isto showed that life depends on how you view it. Rather than being muddled down with cynicism and despair, Isto embraces what life throws at him, noting excitedly at one point, 'My guitar's never made that sound before!' -The Colgate Maroon-News "Funny, but kind of mystical." -Douglas Lain - Diet Soap Podcast ““This guy uses his pipes to their full comic potential. If there were a key influence here, I would guess it's old Merry Melodies cartoons. Squeaks, squawks, croons, bluesy runs, falsetto, basso, quantum physics...sheesh this guy has it all. He cuts the room with a screech that ends ALL conversation, pauses, and mumbles out a lovely little scat run. Let's not forget that he's also a great, versatile, lightning fast guitarist. Plus, he'd like to stick it to Ann Coulter...God, what a great song. What a funny, funny writer...and you and I both know that funny is hard to do. Isto does it.”” -Ben Krieger - Jezebel Music Newsletter "When I say croon, I truly mean that this man croons. It’s not in the flashy sense you may relate with “crooners” that made all the ladies swoon such as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby; it’s more of the sweet, gentle croon that comes from the original definition of the word." -Martha Ostergar, KSL.com "This one is sure to make your ears smile." -Mike Jones - The Emerald Press “Isto has piles and piles of talent. More than that though, he has an immense love for creating music, and it is becoming clearer to me (as I listen to/read more of his work) that he seems to just be in love with everything.” -Paisley Tunes Blog "Some of the sounds have been inspired by his extensive studies of the native music of planets in star systems other than our own." -The Utica Observer-Dispatch "Models stood atop tree trunks set against a faux cabin backdrop while a bearded, denim-clad dude sat in a corner singing and strumming his guitar as if he were in front of a campfire–not a fashion presentation. I learned later that the musician was in fact Chris White." - Fashionista.com Click to set custom HTML
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