Short bio
Christopher Adler is a composer, performer and improviser living in San Diego, California. His music draws upon thirty years of research into the traditional musics of Thailand and Laos, and a background in mathematics. He is a foremost performer of new music for the khaen, a free-reed mouth organ from Laos and Northeast Thailand, and his CD Landscape Traces: New music for khaen, volume two was selected by Ted Gioia as one of the top 100 releases of 2023. He attended the International Gugak Workshop in Seoul, South Korea in 2022, and was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to South Korea in 2024. His cross-cultural compositions for traditional Korean instruments have been presented at the National Gugak Center by the Society for East-West Music and Ensemble The Geomungo. Other recent projects include Science Fictions for two pianos, based on mathematical sequences explored in a co-authored paper with mathematician Jean-Paul Allouche, and Aeneas in the Underworld, a concert-length oratorio for guitar and ensemble recounting the sixth book of Vergil’s Aeneid released on MicroFest Records. He is a pianist with NOISE, a frequent performer for San Diego New Music, and co-founder of the soundON Festival in La Jolla, California. He is currently Professor of Music and Director of the Asian Studies Program at the University of San Diego, and was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to South Korea in 2024. His compositions have also been released on many labels including Tzadik, MicroFest, Innova, Centaur, New Amsterdam, and Cities and Memory, and his performances are on labels including Tzadik, Innova, and Centaur. christopheradler.com
b. 1972
(258 words)
Full-length bio
Christopher Adler is a composer, performer and improviser living in San Diego, California. His music draws upon three decades of research into the traditional musics of Thailand and Laos, and a background in mathematics. He is internationally recognized as a foremost performer of new music for the khaen, a free-reed mouth organ from Laos and Northeast Thailand, and has an expanding collection of works for Korean traditional instruments. He is a pianist and composer-in-residence with NOISE, a frequent performer for San Diego New Music, and a co-founder of the soundON Festival in La Jolla, CA.
Christopher Adler’s stylistically diverse compositions are informed by an abiding fascination with the traditional musics of the world, and research into diverse topics including the traditional musics of Thailand and Laos, Korean traditional music, early 20th-century Russian futurism, the application of mathematics to music, and improvisation. He attended the International Gugak Workshop in Seoul, South Korea in 2022 and was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to South Korea in 2024. He has recently composed works for performers of Korean instruments, including Ensemble The Geomungo directed by Sunhee Lee, the Society for East-West Music, Junghwa Lee (gayageum) and Soo Yeon Lyuh (haegum), many of which were premiered at venues in Seoul including the National Gugak Center. Other notable works include Aeneas in the Underworld, a concert-length chamber oratorio based on Vergil’s Aeneid for solo speaking guitarist and ensemble released on Microfest Records featuring soloist Colin McAllister, Science Fictions for two pianos, based on mathematical sequences explored in a co-authored paper with mathematician Jean-Paul Allouche, and Zaum Box, a ten-movement collection for speaking percussionist based on Russian futurist sound poetry released in a series of videos by percussionist Katelyn Rose King with cinematography by Ute Freund and which was featured in the exhibition Louder Than Words at the Zuckerman Museum of Art. Recent works for keyboard include Construct: for organ, commissioned by the American Guild of Organists, and City Lights and Other Stories, a concert-length collection of piano solos spanning his diverse stylistic interests and designed to be accessible to student pianists. His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Tanglewood, Merkin Hall, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, Bang on a Can, the MATA Festival, and at universities and new music festivals worldwide by ensembles including the Silk Road Ensemble, Ensemble ACJW, Da Capo Chamber Players, Contact Contemporary Music, Tesla Quartet, Van Buren String Quartet, Passepartout Duo, pulsoptional, NOISE and the Seattle Creative Orchestra. His compositions for percussion ensemble have been performed by ensembles including red fish blue fish, Third Coast Percussion, Nief-Norf, Ensemble 64.8, and the Chamber Cartel, and have been presented at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention.
Christopher Adler is the world’s leading innovator in contemporary concert music for the khaen. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Bang on a Can Marathon, Merkin Hall, Music at the Anthology, the Cultural Center of Chicago, the National Gugak Center in Korea, and at universities across the U.S. and Southeast Asia. With his ongoing project New Musical Geographies, he promotes the instrument by performing and recording new works by composers from around the world. Selected works are featured on his New music for khaen CD series on Liber Pulveris Records, now including Triangulations (2020), and Landscape Traces, which was named by Ted Gioia as one of the top 100 releases of 2023. His recordings of compositions by David Loeb have been released on Centaur, and Vienna Modern Masters, and his compositions for khaen have been released on the Tzadik, Centaur, and Cities and Memory labels. His retrospective discussion of his first ten years of cross-cultural composition was published in John Zorn’s Arcana II: Musicians on Music (Hips Road, 2007).
His chamber compositions have been released on the 2008 CD Ecstatic Volutions in a Neon Haze (Innova), the 2004 CD Epilogue for a Dark Day (Tzadik), and on recordings by percussionists Omar Carmenates (Rattle Records), Morris Palter (Blue Leaf Records), Lisa Cella (Chen Li Music), Michi Wiancko (New Amsterdam), Jeffrey Jacob (New Ariel), and Tasha Smith Godinez (Centaur). His Violin Concerto was released on Blue Griffin by violinist Sarah Plum with the San Diego New Music Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Deyoe.
As a soloist and as pianist with NOISE, San Diego New Music, and Nief-Norf, he has given many world premieres and recorded compositions by Derek Keller (Tzadik), Nathan Hubbard (Circumvention/Accretions), Matthew Burtner (Innova Recordings), Juan Campoverde Q. (Liber Pulveris Recordings), Stuart Saunders Smith (Centaur), and Christopher Burns. His piano improvisations may be heard on Mineralia (pfMENTUM) and Pleistocene, by the Alan Lechusza/ Christopher Adler Duo, on Transcontinental, by the Christopher Adler Trio (Nine Winds), and on Hu Jianbing’s Sky (Traditional Crossroads). His improvisations on khaen have been released by Artship Recordings, and with the ensemble Gunther’s Grass on Titicacaman Recordings and Accretions.
Christopher Adler is currently Professor of Music and Director of the Asian Studies Program at the University of San Diego where he teaches courses in composition, music theory, 20th- and 21st-century music, and world music. He received Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in composition from Duke University and Bachelor’s degrees in music composition and mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studied composition with Scott Lindroth, Evan Ziporyn, Stephen Jaffe, Sidney Corbett, Thai music with Panya Roongruang, and pipe organ with James David Christie and Haig Mardirosian.
christopheradler.com
b. 1972
(892 words)
