Christopher Adler

Christopher Adler (born 1972) is a musician, composer and music professor at San Diego University. A virtuoso player of the khaen, a reed instrument native to Laos and Thailand, he has been composing works for the khaen both as a solo instrument and in combination with western instruments since 1996. His works for solo piano include the three-part Bear Woman Dances, commissioned to accompany a dance depicting a Korean creation myth and largely based the Korean musical system nongak. Four of his compositions have been broadcast internationally on WGBH's Art of the States series. His composition for viola and persussion, Music for a Royal Palace, was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project. An homage to Thailand's Bang Pa-In Palace, the work incorporates traditional Thai melody and embellishments. It was performed at Zankel Hall in 2006 and recorded at the Tanglewood Music Center that same year. His Serpent's Tonque for sheng and guanzi (traditional Chinese instruments) premiered at the 2011 MATA Festival.

Adler was born in Mountain View, California and grew up in Falls Church, Virginia. He developed a connection with music at a young age, playing the pipe organ at the church where his mother worked in Falls Church, (which he would continue to do until his move to San Diego).

He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an undergraduate hoping to major in Mathematics and Physics, but instead earned bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Composition. One of his mentors there was Professor Evan Ziporyn, who would later be the one to encourage him to play a non-Western instrument. He was first introduced to traditional Thai music, as well as the Khaen specifically, while attending MIT in 1994, during a festival in Washington D.C. He went on to receive his PhD in Composition from Duke University.

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