Chris Brown

CHRIS BROWN (b. 1953, Mendota, Illinois) composer, pianist, and electronic musician, creates music for acoustic instruments with interactive electronics, for computer networks, and for improvising ensembles. Collaboration and improvisation are consistent themes in his work, as well as the invention and performance of new electronic instruments. These range from electro-acoustic instruments (“Gazamba”, 1982), to acoustic instrument transformation systems (“Lava”, 1992), and audience interactive FM radio installations (“Transmissions”, 2004, with Guillermo Galindo). In 2005 he created “TeleSon”, a composition for two ReacTable instruments performed in a joint concert between Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria and the International Computer Music Conference in Barcelona, Spain. He has also been a member for over 20 years of the pioneering computer network music band THE HUB. As a performer he has recorded music by Henry Cowell, Luc Ferrari, José Maceda, John Zorn, David Rosenboom, Larry Ochs, Glenn Spearman, and Wadada Leo Smith; as an improvisor he has recorded with Anthony Braxton, Pauline Oliveros, Fred Frith, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Ikue Mori, Alvin Curran, William Winant, Biggi Vinkeloe, Don Robinson, and Frank Gratkowski, among many others. Recordings of his music are available on Tzadik, Pogus, Intakt, Rastascan, Ecstatic Peace, SIRR, and Artifact labels. He teaches at Mills College in Oakland, California where he is Co-Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM).