Christopher Adler

Updated on Jan 18, 2024

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Genre Classical

Albums Adler, C.: Ecstatic Volutions in a Neon Haze Record labels Innova Recordings, Vienna Modern Masters Similar Matthew Burtner, Morris Palter, Evan Ziporyn, Mark Applebaum, John Luther Adams

Christopher adler

Christopher Adler (born 1972) is a musician, composer and music professor at San Diego University. A virtuoso player of the khaen, a reed instrument native to Laos and Thailand, he has been composing works for the khaen both as a solo instrument and in combination with western instruments since 1996. His works for solo piano include the three-part Bear Woman Dances, commissioned to accompany a dance depicting a Korean creation myth and largely based the Korean musical system nongak. Four of his compositions have been broadcast internationally on WGBH's Art of the States series. His composition for viola and persussion, Music for a Royal Palace, was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project. An homage to Thailand's Bang Pa-In Palace, the work incorporates traditional Thai melody and embellishments. It was performed at Zankel Hall in 2006 and recorded at the Tanglewood Music Center that same year. His Serpent's Tonque for sheng and guanzi (traditional Chinese instruments) premiered at the 2011 MATA Festival.

Christopher adler the wind blows inside

Biography

Adler was born in Mountain View, California and grew up in Falls Church, Virginia. He developed a connection with music at a young age, playing the pipe organ at the church where his mother worked in Falls Church, (which he would continue to do until his move to San Diego).

He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an undergraduate hoping to major in Mathematics and Physics, but instead earned bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Composition. One of his mentors there was Professor Evan Ziporyn, who would later be the one to encourage him to play a non-Western instrument. He was first introduced to traditional Thai music, as well as the Khaen specifically, while attending MIT in 1994, during a festival in Washington D.C. He went on to receive his PhD in Composition from Duke University.

Adler has lived in San Diego since 1999 where he is a professor in the Asian Studies and Music departments at San Diego University. He also engages in several organizations and festivals that center around contemporary and experimental chamber music.

His wife, Supeena Insee Adler, is also a musician who specializes in traditional Thai music.

Musical career

Adler's works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Tanglewood, Merkin Hall, Shanghai Symphony Hall, the Bang on a Can Marathon, Music at the Anthology, and the Cultural Center of Chicago, the Seoul Arts Center, Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo and at new music festivals and universities across the US. by ensembles including the Silk Road Ensemble, red fish blue fish, Ensemble ACJW, the Da Capo Chamber Players. His works have been broadcast and webcast internationally on WGBH's Art of the States, WQXR's Cued Up and BBC Radio 3.

Recordings of Adler's music include:

Epilogue for a dark day (2004). Tzadik Records

Ecstatic volutions in a neon haze (2007) Innova Recordings

A forest of verses: solo and chamber music (2009) Vienna Modern Masters

Adler's retrospective analysis of his first ten years of cross-cultural composition was published in John Zorn's Arcana II: Musicians on Music (Hips Road, 2007).

Compositions

Adler's compositions reflect his research on the traditional music of Thailand and Laos as well as his background in mathematics. His compositions are typically a hybrid between contemporary concert music and traditional music, which also integrates improvisation into structured composition.

Orchestral Works

Violin Concerto (2013) for chamber orchestra

Lineamenta (2000) for chamber orchestra and Thai instruments

Ensemble Works

The Toy Robot's Mechanical Heart (2015) for toy piano and percussion

Fold (A Postcard Piece) (2013) for ensemble (variable instrumentation)

Microlude in Three Primes (2012) for percussion quartet

Once, in a grove of tamarisk (2012) for mallet percussion trio

Mirror / Fall (2011) for oboe and trombone

Nongak (2011) for mallet percussion duo

In tall and tufted reeds (2009) for alto flute, cello and accordion

Pines Long Slept in Sunshine (2009) for percussion ensemble

In Daylight and Cool White (to Dan Flavin) (2008) for flute ensemble

Petit Hommage à Jehan Alain (2007) for alto flute and cello

Music for a Royal Palace (2006) for sheng (Chinese mouth organ), viola, marimba and percussion

Ecstatic Volutions in a Neon Haze (2005) for oboe, bassoon, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano and percussion

Iris (2003) for flute, guitar, cello and marimba

Signals Intelligence (ensemble version, 2002) for percussion ensemble

Thao (1997) for flute, oboe, marimba, vibraphone, violin, contrabss and ching

Traces (1997) for two violas

After This, Nothing (1997) for bass clarinet and viola

Ritual Music (1995) for oboe, viola, bassoon and piano

String Quartet (1995)

Cleopatra (2010) for tenor saxophone, guitar and piano

Serpent of Five Tongues (2009) for guanzi and sheng (Chinese oboe and Chinese mouth organ)

Mastodon (2009) for bass clarinet, guitar and piano

Repudiation and Sacrifice (Music in Service of Revolution) (2004) for voice, woodwinds, percussion, computer and electronics

I Want to Believe (2002–04) for soprano saxophone and piano or trio with vibraphone

Works in Thai and Laotian musical traditions

Lineamenta (2000) for chamber orchestra and Thai instruments

Pan-lom (1998) for large ensemble of Thai and Western instruments

Five Cycles (2002) for khaen solo

Epilogue for a Dark Day (2001) for khaen solo

Three Body Problem (1999) for khaen and cello

Telemetry Lock (1999) for khaen solo

Tashi Delek (1998) for khaen solo

the wind blows inside (1997) for khaen solo

Three Lai (1996) for khaen, violin and viola

Instrumental solo works

Construct: for organ (2016) for pipe organ

Spines (2016) for solo guitar

Clarion over the dreaming earth (2015) for 37-pipe chromatic sheng

Zaum Box (2015) for speaking percussionist

Air (2014) for glockenspiel

Aeneas in the Underworld, Act II (2014) for guitar/orator and tape with second guitar

010 machine states (2012) for flute

Strata (2011) for extended range glockenspiel (c-f) or celesta

Aeneas in the Underworld, Act I (2011) for guitar/orator

11 Sequences for Tom Johnson (2010) for pipe organ

Plenum Vortices (2009) for percussion

Jolie Sphinx (2009) for violin

Motetus (1995/2009) version for extended range glockenspiel (c-f)

Telemetry Lock II (2006) for 5-string electric violin

Liber Pulveris (2005) for acoustic guitar

Signals Intelligence (solo version, 2002) (virtuoso version, 2009) for percussion

First Spectrum of the Contrabass (2002) for contrabass

Song for a Form Carved by Water (2001) for soprano saxophone with drone accompaniment

Bear Woman Dances (2001) for piano solo

wind-chime (1997) for sheng (Chinese mouth organ)

things that flow (1996) for harpsichord solo

Motetus (1995) for carillon

Four Piano Sketches (1992-1995) for piano solo

Vocal

Madrigal: Epitaphium Poliae (2012) for choir SSAATTBB

Song for a Glacial Boulder (2002) for soprano or tenor and saxophone quartet

Electronic

Piano Field (2012) 2-channel audio

Hector Mine (2004) 2-channel audio

Truisms (1995) for reader and computer

Songs

I MaestosoA Forest of Verses · 2011
Rivermist in SummerThe Silent Waterfall: Solo & Chamber Music by David Loeb · 2011
The Maltese Plaza in Fog: III Con energia2017

References

Christopher Adler Wikipedia

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