Dr. Chris Arrell

Director of Theory & Composition

Dr. Chris Arrell is Director of Theory and Composition in the Department of Music of Clayton State University in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, where he teaches courses in composition, theory and analysis, counterpoint, orchestration, and music technology.  He holds a Doctorate in Music Composition from Cornell University, a Master in Music Composition from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor in Music Composition from the University of Oregon.  Additional university study includes attending Columbia University as an Exchange Scholar.  Arrell's principle teachers are Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, Tristan Murail, Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, and Robert Kyr. 

Performances of Arrell's music include those given by the University of Illinois New Music Ensemble, soprano HWajung Yoo, Sonic Generator, Bent Frequency, Sospeso, Thamyris, saxophonist Rhonda Taylor, pianist Lisa Leong, mezzo Maya Hoover, bassoonist Scott Pool, the Admony-Kanazawa Piano Duo, members of the California E.A.R. Unit, Ensemble Green, newear, Neophonia, the Cornell Festival Orchestra and Contemporary Chamber Players, the University of Texas New Music Ensemble, and the Aura New Music Ensemble, at venues such as the 4th Annual Contemporary Music Festival (Oakland, California), Eyedrum (Atlanta), Music at the Anthology (New York), CalArts, Bowling Green, SCI Regions V and VI conferences, New Music Café (Bloomington, Illinois), the International Electroacoustic Music Festival (Portland, Oregon), Spivey Hall (Morrow, Georgia), the Aspen Festival of Music, the Pacific Contemporary Music Center New Music Festival (Los Angeles), the Ernest Bloch Music Festival (Newport, Oregon), the University of Oregon Music Today Festival, Acousmania (Romania), the Goethe Institute of Rome, En Red O Soundscapes Symposium (Barcelona), and the 14th World Saxophone Congress (Slovenia).

Arrell's honors, commissions, and awards include those from the Fromm Foundation of Harvard University, Music at the Anthology, Spivey Hall, the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Award, the League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music, the Society of Composers, ASCAP, the MacDowell Colony, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Fulbright-Hays Commission, the University of Texas Excellence in Teaching Award Committee, Cornell University, the University of Texas School of Music, and the University of Oregon. 

Arrell’s electroacoustic pieces, “A is for Andiamo” and “Reel”, are included on volumes eight and two, respectively, of the Electroshock Presents Electroacoustic Music CD series (Russia), and have received radio broadcasts in North and South America, Europe, and Australia.