biography
Chris started playing the violin when he was a kid in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The school system in Halifax is famous for its strong music and arts programs where Chris developed a love for playing and singing.
Chris graduated from Dalhousie University with an undergraduate degree in violin performance. In the summers he traveled to the United States to further his studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Meadowmount School for Strings in upstate New York. These formal studies taught him great discipline and agility on the violin.
Chris's first professional gig was with Symphony Nova Scotia (SNS) at the age of eighteen as substitute second fiddle. It was with SNS that Chris started his career as an orchestral arranger, writing for their Pops concerts series. Chris played with SNS until 2000, when he left Halifax and moved to Toronto where he continues to write arrangements for SNS and other Canadian orchestras.
Although Chris's foundation is in classical music, after university he found himself drifting away from classical performance as his interest in improvisation increased. Along with a strong classical music presence, Halifax is also home to a variety of other musical styles which Chris was drawn to. He got into jazz, pop and rock along with more avant garde improvisation with a range of talented musicians.
"As much as I liked performing classical music, I was never as passionate about music as when I was improvising in these groups."
Around the time Chris moved to Toronto, he started playing with guitarist Jesse Cook. It was at this point in his career that he started really listening to and playing styles from all over the world. Chris has always had an affinity for world sounds, playing at various world music festivals he could perform with and learn from other musicians. The musicians he toured with and met on the road truly opened the doors of world music.
