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Agustin Castilla-Avila was born in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, where he began his musical studies at the conservatory. He then studied at the Conservatorio Superior de Seville at Josefina Calero, and graduated with the Titulo Superior de Guitarra. In 1998 he received a scholarship from the Fundación La Caixa and the British Council for a master's degree at the London College of Music with the guitarist Carlos Bonell. He then earned a postgraduate diploma and a Masters Degree with Robert Brightmore and David Miller at the Guildhall School of Music. In 2001 he completed a postgraduate degree in guitar with Isabel Siewers at the Mozarteum University. In parallel, he accomplished his doctor's degree in Musical Arts with Frank Koonce at the Arizona State University, where he also worked as a teaching assistant. In 2004 he started studying composition with Adriana Hölszky and Reinhard Febel at the Mozarteum. He has also studied with Alexander Müllenbach at the Conservatoire du Luxembourg. In 2010 he was an artist in residence in Vienna, sponsered by the Austrian Federal Ministry.
He attended guitar master classes among others with D. Russell, M. Barrueco, R. Dyens and visited composition master classes with S. Sciarrino, Marco T., C. Halffter, A. Posadas, J. Kaipainen, J. Tiensuu, K. Schwertsik. In 1994-95 he was the youngest guitar professor at the Conservatorio Profesional de Ceuta and in 1995-98 he taught at the Conservatorio Elemental de Lucena in Spain. In 1998, he worked as a composer with the theater group Boardwalk in García Lorca's play "Bluthochzeit". In the same year he took part in the British film Maestro. He also composed the music for the short film "You're Perfect" by Bibiana Juanes.
Castilla-Avila has performed both as a soloist and with chamber music ensembles and with orchestras in Europe and the USA. He received awards at the Forêt Dorleans Festival in France and at the Festival Internacional de Vélez-Málaga in Spain. He worked as a composer at the IV and V. Bolivar Hall Guitar Festival in London, Guildhall Contemporary Music Festival, Salzburg Strings Festival, Mozart Ante Portas Salzburg, West-Eastern Einklang Symposium 2007, Urban Festival Hallein 2007, start 2007, Ročník Medzinárodného Festivalu Banska Bystrica, IG Night of Composers, New Faces New Dances 2008 Salzburg, Austrian Week of Microtonal Music, International Guitar Festival Hallein, Sävellyspaja-Avanti! 2009, Spanish Evenings in San Petersburg, International University of Santo Tomas Guitar Festival in Manila, etc.
His music was conducted by D. Russell Davies, P. Fontanelli, J. Kalitzke, T. Ceccherini, A. Soriano, H. Lintu, K. Hiller, C. Chamorro etc. conducted and recorded by the Austrian Broadcasting Corperation ORF. He has published piano pieces with the publisher Doblinger. He is the artistic adviser of the International Society for Ekmelic Music in Austria. He gave lectures on micro-tonality of the guitar at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Escuela Reina Sofia in Madrid, Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore and other major musical centers.
He has composed works for various combinations (from solo to orchestra, choreography, theater or two chamber operas ("Adán de Eva", which was first performed by the El Cimarron and "Don Quixote's Dulcinea", commissioned by the 58th Festival Europäische Wochen Passau 2010 ). Currently, he is composed "A.Mort.Z IV" for the Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, which premiered in February 2011.