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.^[1] 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.^[2] Four of his compositions have been broadcast internationally on WGBH's Art of the States series.^[3][4] 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.^[5][6] His Serpent's Tonque for sheng and guanzi (traditional Chinese instruments) premiered at the 2011 MATA Festival.^[7]

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).^[8]

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.^[8][9]

Adler has lived in San Diego since 1999 where he is a professor in the Asian Studies and Music departments at San Diego University.^[10] 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.^[9]

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,^[3] WQXR's Cued Up^[11] and BBC Radio 3.^[12]

Recordings of Adler's music include:

• Epilogue for a dark day (2004). Tzadik Records^[13]
• Ecstatic volutions in a neon haze (2007) Innova Recordings^[14]
• A forest of verses: solo and chamber music (2009) Vienna Modern Masters^[15]

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).^[16]

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^[17]
• 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

References

External links

• Official website
• American Composers Forum. Christopher Adler
• Adler, Christopher (January 2013). "World Music Instrument: The Lao Khaen ". Center for World Music