Chris Chafe is a composer, improvisor, and cellist, developing much of his music
alongside computer-based research. He is Chair of Stanford University’s
Department of Music and works at the Center for Computer Research in Music and
Acoustics (CCRMA). In 2019, he was International Visiting Research Scholar at the
Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies The University of British Columbia,
Visiting Professor at the Politecnico di Torino, and Edgard-Varèse Guest
Professor at the Technical University of Berlin. At IRCAM (Paris) and The Banff
Centre (Alberta), he has pursued methods for digital synthesis, music performance
and real-time internet collaboration. An active performer either on the net or
physically present, his music reaches audiences in sometimes novel venues. An
early network project was a simultaneous five-country concert was hosted at the
United Nations in 2009. Chafe’s works include gallery and museum music
installations which are now into their third decade with “musifications”
resulting from collaborations with artists, scientists and MD’s. Recent work
includes the Earth Symphony and PolarTide (environmental), Gnosisong (medical),
Tomato Music (biological) and Harbour Symphonies played by the horns of large
ships in the port of St. Johns, Newfoundland.
Online collaboration software and research into latency factors continue to evolve. An active performer either on the net or physically present, his music reaches audiences in sometimes novel venues, for example, Sun Shot played by the horns of large ships in the port of St. Johns, Newfoundland.. An early network project was a simultaneous five-country concert was hosted at the United Nations (2009). Chafe’s works include gallery and museum music installations which are now into their third decade with “musifications” resulting from collaborations with artists, scientists and MD’s. Recent work includes the Heavy Metal Suite, the Earth Symphony, Ensemble Means, Gnosisong, Chopper and Tomato Music, variously involving brass quintet, chamber quintet, loudspeaker dome, Wurlitzer theater organ and computer synthesis.