Christopher Tucker is emerging as one of Americas bright and innovative classical composers. An unabashed romantic, his music has been heralded as having wonderful maturity, musical imagination, and sensitivity. He has composed works for chamber ensembles, chorus, band and orchestra creating an impressive catalogue of compositions at such an early age. In addition, Mr. Tucker has begun to amass numerous awards in composition and conducting from organizations including the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), Phi Beta Mu, the National Band Association, WASBE and ASCAP. He has also received praise for his radio broadcast production and personality work while at WRR Classical 101.1 FM in Dallas, Texas, winning a Communicator Award and being a finalist for a coveted Silver Microphone Award. As a music copyist, he has worked with Daron Hagen, William Latham and Joan Tower. Mr. Tucker holds memberships in ASCAP and the American Composers Forum and is currently composer-in-residence of the Helios Vocal Ensemble and is the Director of Artistic Administration/Co-Founder of the Lone Star Wind Orchestra. He presently lives in Rockwall, Texas with his wife Kimberly and their dog Dottie.
Within the composers musical portfolio, lies a huge success in the symphonic wind band medium building an ever-growing audience following. Thomas Dvorak writes, "Christopher Tucker is achieving a new seriousness for the medium...the elements of sensitivity and lush sonorities coupled with interesting and musical harmonic growth and rhythmic vitality makes his music special. With the release of his first commercial CD titled
Twilight in the Wilderness (Mark Records), Mr. Tucker has embraced the ensemble and its multiple-aged levels as a positive course for contemporary composition. New works for wind band include
Anúnkasan, the Sky Spirit, Kt 13 for collegiate wind symphony,
Americans Lost, Kt 4, which won the 2001 Biennial CBDNA Young Band Composition Contest and
Twilight in the Wilderness, Kt 14/4, winner of the following 2003 CBDNA award as well as the 2004 Claude T. Smith Memorial Band Composition Contest.
Born in Bryan, Texas in 1976, Christopher Tuckers musical upbringing was not what you would call conventional. Being a son of a military family, his life never settled in any one place moving from city to city. Studying piano at the age of eight for four years did not initially set him down a path to musical composition; instead, the path took several turns along the way. A passion in science and math became a big part of his early educational development winning accolades in research through science-meets and competitions. Inspired by his first school music teacher in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mr. Tucker began a journey which would truly open up a musical world unknown to him playing the clarinet in the band. In high school in Columbus, Georgia, Mr. Tucker was given the opportunity to excel at a higher level performing in honor bands, collegiate ensembles and orchestras. And with that, an important choice had to be made in regards to formal training in college a degree in science or music. Mr. Tucker chose the latter accepting an invitation back to his home state to pursue a degree in Music Education at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. It was during his first year of college where not one event, but the influence of one man caused Mr. Tucker to switch his musical focus and degree his first composition teacher, Martin Mailman.
Christopher Tucker went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree cum laude in Music Composition with a minor in Music Theory. Afterwards, he received his Master of Music from the University of Texas at Austin studying composition with Dan Welcher and Donald Grantham, while also completing a Performance Certificate in Conducting studying with Kevin Sedatole. Other musical studies included masterclasses with notables Judith Weir, Lowell Liebermann, John Corigliano, Warren Benson, David Maslanka, Samuel Adler, Elliot Del Borgo and Walter Hartley, as well as additional work with Mark Camphouse, Timothy Mahr and Jack Stamp.
