Christopher Biggs

Bio:

Christopher Biggs presently studies music composition at the University of Missouri, Kansas City where he receives full funding as a Preparing Future Faculty Fellow. He is also the co-founder of the Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance (KcEMA). Chris recently received as SEAMUS/ASCAP Student Commission for MHCHAOS. His music has been presented across the United States and Europe, as well as in Mexico and Taiwan by such notable performers as guitarist Magnus Andersson, saxophonist Brian Sacawa, pianist Keith Kirchoff, and the California EAR Unit. His principle composition teachers have been Dan Asia, Craig Walsh, James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long, Chen, and Joao Pedro Oliveira.

Member Since:

December 19, 2006

Members:

Chris' album Metatexts will soon be available for purchase online.

Influences:

Lee Hyla, John Zorn, Mike Patton, Tool, Gyorgy Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, Dan Asia, Craig Walsh, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Gerard Grisey, Edgar Varese, Annie Gosfield, Bill Hicks, Boredoms, Brian Ferneyhough, Pierre Boulez, David Rovics, Deerhoof, Fred Frith, Iannis Xenakis, Mario Davidovsky, Meshuggah, Mike Patton, Radiohead

Sounds Like:

If I didn’t wake up in the morning and write music, I don’t know what else I would do. I have written music since I was 10 years old. It was, and is my favorite activity. When I was younger I had a variety of learning deficiencies and academic subjects generally confused me, but music made sense. I understood it, I knew what I was doing when I did it, and I knew I wanted to do it for as long as I could. The materials, techniques, and processes I use to write music has changed but the fundamental conception of my creative process has not: I take concepts and ideas from other interests in my life and I represent them abstractly—as emotive, subjective experiences. Initially, I wrote songs about playing basketball or sledding. More recently my work reflects inspirations from literature, economics, politics, film, and physics. The emotional state that most interests me is bewilderment. For me bewilderment is most profound when it is induced by human action that is so horrific, authoritarian, beautiful, selfless, or creative that it is beyond my comprehension. Presently, I am interested in music that uses both live performers and electronic sound. This allows for exciting instrumental performances combined with the unlimited sonic palette that a composer can create in music software. This genre also transcends the traditional performance space for music created in academia because it is amplified and can be heard in non-traditional concert environments. As an artist I am always trying to deconstruct barriers between the work I do and its presentation to new audiences.

Record Label:

Peanut Shell Productions