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Christopher Adler

Christopher Adler (1972-present), is a musician, a composer and a professor at San Diego University. He has focused on the musical traditions of Thailand and Laos for twelve years, and is the only western musician currently producing pieces for the Khaen, an instrument native to Thailand. He has also engages in several organizations and festivals that center around contemporary and experimental chamber music.

Biography

Adler spent most of his childhood in Washington, D.C. and Church Falls, VA. He developed a connection with music at a young age, playing the pipe organ at the church where his mother worked in Church Falls, (which he would continue to do until his move to San Diego).

Later in life he attended the Massachusetts Institute of technology 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.

After his experiences at MIT, Adler moved on to Duke University where he subsequently earned a Master’s and PhD in Composition.

Currently Christopher Adler has lived in San Diego since 1999 where he works as a professor and composer at San Diego University, continuing to produce pieces for the Khaen.

He has a wife, Supeena Insee Adler, who is also a musician following the traditional Thai music traditions.

Career

Christopher Adler has his works 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 U.S. by ensembles including the Silk Road Ensemble, red fish blue fish, Ensemble ACJW, the Da Capo Chamber Players, and many others. His compositions have been released on Tzadik, Innova, Rattle, Blue Leaf, Blue Griffin, and WGBH’s Art of the States. His performances and improvisations have been released on Tzadik Records, Innova Recordings, Vienna Modern Masters, pfMENTUM, Nine Winds, Traditional Crossroads and Circumvention/Accretions. His compositions have been released on his 2008 CD Ecstatic Volutions in a Neon Haze (Innova) and his 2004 CD Epilogue for a Dark Day (Tzadik), and on recordings by percussionists Omar Carmenates (Rattle Records) and Morris Palter (Blue Leaf Records), and his Violin Concerto was released on Blue Griffin by violinist Sarah Plum with the San Diego New Music Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Deyoe. His works have been broadcast and webcast internationally on WGBH’s Art of the States, WNYC, WQXR’s Q2 and BBC-3. His retrospective analysis of his first ten years of cross-cultural composition has been published in John Zorn’s Arcana II: Musicians on Music (Hips Road, 2007), and he has published in the journal Sonic Ideas.

Musical Style

His music draws upon twenty years of research of traditional music in Thailand and Laos, as well as his background in mathematics. He is also the world’s leading innovator in contemporary concert music for the khaen. His compositions are typically a hybrid between contemporary concert music and traditional music, which also integrates improvisation into structured composition.

List of Compositions

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, eletric 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 with Thai and Laos 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

References

Cited Sources

• Adler, C. Christopher Adler Biography. Retrieved from http://christopheradler.com/biography.html

• American Composers. (2006, October). Christopher Adler. Retrieved from http://composersforum.org/members/directory/christopher-adler

• Scher, V. (2006, March 5). Composer’s at Home on an Exotic Instrument. Retrieved from http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/uniontrib/20060305/news_lz1a5view.html

• Nichols, C. (2007, April). Christopher’s Work Premieres at Carnegie Hall. Retrieved from https://alum.mit.edu/news/AlumniProfiles/Archive/Chris_Adler_-2794 University of San Diego.

• Christopher Adler, PhD. Retrieved from https://www.sandiego.edu/cas/faculty-and-staff/biography.php?profile_id=120