EducationBM New England Conservatory
MM Indiana University
MM University of Calgary
DMA Stanford University
About
Dr. Christopher Jones is a composer of intricately designed music
that explores issues of identity, narrative and form in distinctive,
unconventional ways. His music has been performed in North America and
Europe at venues including the Darmstadt Ferienkurse in Germany, the
Ictus International Composition Seminar in Brussels, Merkin Hall in New
York and the Milwaukee Art Museum. Jones has particular interest in
composing chamber music and has worked with ensembles such as the St.
Lawrence String Quartet, the Callithumpian Consort, the Ictus Ensemble
and Ensemble Inauthentica, and soloists such as guitarist, Magnus
Andersson, violinist, Mark Menzies, and flautist, Lisa Cella, Among his
honors are a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation for a large
ensemble work for sfSound, three commissions from the American Composers
Forum, and a Cohn Fellowship at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program
in Woodside, CA.
An active pianist and conductor, Jones has a strong affinity for
experimental and avant-garde music. He has given numerous premieres and
has worked with composers such as Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Julio
Estrada, Helmut Lachenmann, and Stefano Scodanibbio. He brings together
his interests in composition, performance and improvisation as pianist,
conductor and co-director of the innovative Bay Area ensemble, sfSound.
Deeply committed to the production and promotion of contemporary music,
Jones has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the new
music group, Earplay in San Francisco, and as Contemporary Music
Production Manager at Stanford University.
Currently residing in Chicago, Jones joined the music faculty at
DePaul University as Assistant Professor of Musicianship and Composition
in 2011. He previously taught composition and music theory at Stanford,
San Francisco State, and San José State Universities, and worked
extensively with young composers at Lowell High School in San Francisco
through a Composer-in-the-Schools residency sponsored by the American
Composers Forum. Jones completed a doctorate in composition at Stanford
University, and previously earned degrees in composition from the
University of Calgary, and piano from Indiana University and the New
England Conservatory. He studied composition with Brian Ferneyhough,
Jonathan Harvey, Jonathan Berger, Allan Gordon Bell and David Dzubay,
and piano with Evelyne Brancart, Patricia Zander and Michael Mauldin.