Rate My Professor Chris Arrell

Chris Arrell is an associate professor in the Department of Music at the College of the Holy Cross, where he serves as director of the Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation (H-CLEF), which he founded in 2015. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) from Cornell University, a Master of Music (M.M.) from the University of Texas, and a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) from the University of Oregon. Prior to joining Holy Cross, Arrell was a tenured professor and Director of Theory and Composition at Clayton State University. His academic interests include music composition, music theory, sound synthesis, and computer music.

Arrell's compositions have been commissioned by organizations such as Boston Musica Viva, Music at the Anthology in New York, Spivey Hall, Cornell University, and the Fromm Foundation of Harvard University. Key works include Carnyx, featured on the album Transition and Apotheosis released by Ablaze Records, and Walking in Altamira, a collaboration with Collide-O-Scope Music supported by the Ditson Foundation of Columbia University. Other compositions performed at Holy Cross include Oh, Popeye!, premiered by the Bent Frequency Duo Project. He has received the Ettelson Composer Award, Bent Frequency Underscore Prize, Ossia Music Prize, honors from the League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music, and the Salvatore Martirano Competition. Additional accolades include American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers awards, residencies at the MacDowell Colony and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and a Fulbright Hays Foundation grant. Arrell served as composer-in-residence for NEXTET at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; featured guest composer for the Pellegrini Festival of New Music at Ball State University and the Aura New Music Ensemble at the University of Texas-Houston; and presented a portrait concert at the Alte Schmiede in Vienna. His music has been performed by ensembles including Alia Musica, Bent Frequency, Brave New Works, Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, newEar, Puget Sound Trio, Sonic Generator, and Ensemble Sospeso, and is published by Ablaze Records, Beauport Classical, Electroshock Records, MSR Classics, Navona, Parma Recordings, SCI, and Trevco Music.