My String Quartet no. 1 “L’appel du vide” will receive its world premiere on February 26th at The Lab at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in Birmingham, England.
The work combines found microcassette recordings, sine waves, and fragments from an old recording session with my friend, Nick Fields. The work is dedicated to his memory.
Visit the work’s page to see the companion zine and view the score.
I am excited to be presenting my One Mic Project at the University of Rochester’s ARTs + Change Conference. It is a virtual conference and is free to attend. There are a lot of amazing speakers sharing their experience in a variety of art forms.
Official Blurb:
In this presentation, Chris will discuss his philosophical and technical approach to making music in correctional facilities and other unusual places. He'll demonstrate songwriting techniques that allow participants, even those with little musical experience, to write their own music. He will share how some basic recording equipment can turn any room, from a community center to a virtual meeting, into a recording studio, and how to cultivate an environment that fosters creativity and self expression.
I’m excited to return to the UK for the first time in (9!) years for the BFE/RMA Research Student Conference. One of my first conference experiences was presenting my piece On the Verge at the 2016 BFE/RMA Conference.
This year I will be presenting Sometimes I Get a Feeling and some of my research on sampling in electro-acoustic music.
I’ve been a part of some fun live performances of my work in the past month. On October 26th, Society for New Music presented two movements of Sonic Abstractions, my work based on the visual art work of Cazenovia artist, Shawn Gilmore.
Sonic Abstractions, Mvt II
Society for New Music All Stars
Sonic Abstractions, Mvt III
Society for New Music All Stars
On November 7th, I performed an improvised noise/sample based set at a house show in Syracuse, NY. The show is available to listen to/watch on Bandcamp/Youtube.
You can download Early Electroacoustic Works (2010-2016) on Bandcamp! I’m really proud of this record, it provides a nice context for my early journey through electroacoustic music. The works span several different genres, from plunderphonics to field recordings and drone based/noise work.
Early Electroacoustic Works (2010-2016) is a collection of acousmatic and electroacoustic works dating back to my last days at Syracuse University through to my early days in Birmingham, England.
In putting this record together, I’ve started to better understand my own musical journey. At the time, many of these projects felt like one-offs; in hindsight they represent a series of probings in the forest, a clearing of sonic underbrush, as I worked to forge my own creative path forward. You can hear the nascent sound worlds of later pieces like all that’s left is dirt and sky and Means both sanctioned and forbidden starting to form.
That isn’t to say these works are merely archival novelties.
The Plunderphonic Suite and On the Verge borrow (pun intended) from John Oswald’s (in)famous musical practice, questioning the basic building blocks of music, while also offering rich, unexpected sonic textural experiences. Noisy Rhetoric and Three Studies for Baritone Saxophone and Electronics, are international collaborations with Canadian born, UK based composer/percussionist Colin Frank and Belgium based saxophonist, Floris Van der Veken, respectively.
I’m really excited to share this compilation with the world.
Preorder the album now and you get Noisy Rhetoric right away!
Saturday, August 16, 2025
2:00 PM 4:00 PM
Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo (map)
Jacob Swanson will perform and it worked, my recent piece for alto saxophone, live processing, and multimedia as part of a solo recital at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Buffalo, NY.
Guitarist Ben Ellis will perform my work, in search of distant, guiding suns on Saturday, September 21st as part of the Guitar Series at the Skaneateles Library in Skaneateles, NY. The concert is free and starts at 7:30 pm
The following day, the Byrne:Kozar:Duo will perform all that’s left is dirt and sky at the Hopkinton Arts Center in Hopkinton, MA. The concert begins at 3 pm and tickets are available here.
I’m excited to be bringing Patrick Ellis’s detunes, drones to Ohio University as part of their ClickFest in September. Patrick wrote me this piece in 2018 and it’s been a joy playing it all these years. Below is a performance from Andrea Clearfield’s “Salon” in Philadelphia.
In unexpected, and exciting news, I’ve recently joined Syracuse.com as a Contributing Writer. I will mostly be focusing on local, regional, and national (broadly defined) pop music acts. My first two reviews have been posted and can be read below:
I’ll be a guest on Doug Bielmeier’s “The Process” on 8/9.
Read MoreFor the last year or so I’ve been developing a new radio show, A Curious Ear, that explores the intersection, and interstices, between contemporary classical, experimental, ambient, noise, and other musics. The first episode will air on WCNY-FM on Saturday, July 13th at 11 pm. Don’t worry, if, like me, you will be sound asleep at that time, episodes will be archived and available to listen to on demand.
The first episode features music that incorporates field recordings, including works by Sontag Shogun, Joanna Baillie, Paula Matthusen, Stephen Vitiello and Taylor Deupree.
You can listen to WCNY-FM from anywhere in the world by clicking here.
