Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984, Huntington, NY) is a Brooklyn-based composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electronic music. His music, recently described as "most effective" by the New York Times, is made of delicate and intricate sound worlds that often evoke the many writers who have inspired him: Italo Calvino, Louise Glück, Kurt Vonnegut, Jorge Luis Borges.

His opera, Invisible Cities, which was praised as "mesmerizing" by QonStage Magazine and as "a series of arresting musical moments ... the most satisfying piece on the program" by the New Haven Advocate, was performed this past May by New York City Opera as part of their annual VOX Festival (he is the youngest composer to receive this honor). Later that month, Invisible Cities was performed at the Virignia Arts Festival under the direction of Rhoda Levine, where he was a fellow at the John Duffy Composers' Institute. In June 2009, it was also performed at the first annual Yale Institute for Music Theatre, directed by Robin Guarino. Invisible Cities will receive its fully staged premire in February 2011 with Red Light New Music in New York, directed by Luisa Proske.

Christopher Cerrone's music has received performances in the US, Europe, and Asia from the Orchestra National de Lorraine (Metz, France), Flexible Music (New York), the Yale Philharmonia, the Manhattan Composers' Orchestra (New York), the New Music Collective (Charleston, SC), the New Music Institute at the Hochshule fur Musik, Berlin, the Grenzelos Ensemble (New York/Berlin/Melbourne/Shanghai), the Zwo Concert series (Berlin), as well as at the John F. Kennedy Center with Red Light New Music, the New York City-based ensemble and concert series that he co-directs.

Upcoming projects include a commission for a new work for violin and orchestra for the New York Youth Symphony to be premiered at Carnegie Hall, a new trombone quartet for the New York-based Guidonian Hand and a performance of a his piece Requiem for KV in a new, all acoustic version at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival.

He has been the recipient of awards and grants from the ASCAP (the 2010 Morton Gould Young Composer Award), American Music Center (CAP Grant 2009), and the Yale School of Music (Ezra Laderman Prize), among others and has worked with composers including Pierre Boulez, Salvatore Sciarrino, Charles Wuorinen, Richard Danielpour, and Julia Wolfe.

Christopher Cerrone is currently pursuing his doctorate at the Yale School of Music, where studied with David Lang, Christopher Theofanidis, Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, and Ingram Marshall. He received his undergraduate degree in 2007 from the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Nils Vigeland and Reiko Fueting.

Mr. Cerrone is also an enthusiastic writer on the topic of music and has corresponded frequently for Opera News, and currently writes program notes for the Yale Philharmonia. He also remains active as a performer and lecturer, having performed as a guest artist with Alarm Will Sound, TACTUS, and the Manhattan School Percussion Ensemble. He has taught music theory at the Manhattan School of Music, lectured on contemporary music at Columbia University and the Berlin University of the Arts, and currently teaches electronic music and composition at Yale College.



Short Biography (144 words)

Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984, Huntington, NY) is a composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electronic music currently pursuing his doctorate with Martin Bresnick at the Yale School of Music. He received his undergraduate degree from the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Nils Vigeland and Reiko Fueting. Christopher Cerrone has received commissions and performances in the US, Europe, Asia from the New York City Opera, The Yale Institute for Music Theatre, The Virginia Arts Festival, Th Orchestre National de Lorraine, Flexible Music, the Manhattan Composers' Orchestra, the New Music Collective, the New Music Institute at the Hochshule fur Musik, Berlin, the Grenzelos Ensemble, as well as Red Light New Music, the New York City-based ensemble and concert series that he co-directs, who have performed his work throughout New York City as well as in Louisville, Berlin, Charleston, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He currently teaches electronic music and composition at Yale College.