Chris Froh (percussion) specializes in new music written for solo and chamber settings. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Michigan and has also studied at the Eastman School of Music and the Toho Gakuen Conservatory of Music, where he was a special audit student of marimbist Keiko Abe. He is a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Empyrean Ensemble, the new-music improvisation group sfSound, and Gamelan Sekar Jaya. He has also performed with Earplay, Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, Santa Cruz New Music Works, and at the Other Minds, Berkeley EdgeFest, Festival Nuovi Spazi Musicali, and Pacific Rim Music Festivals.

Froh has premiered works by dozens of composers, including John Adams, Chaya Czernowin, Liza Lim, David Lang, Keiko Abe, and Francois Paris. He tours Japan with marimbist Mayumi Hama and with his former teacher, marimba pioneer Keiko Abe. Solo festival appearances include the Festival Nuovi Spazi Musicali (Rome), the Festival of New American Music, Pacific Rim, and Other Minds. Active in music for theatre and dance, Froh has recorded scores for American Conservatory Theater, performed as a soloist with the Berkeley Repertory Theater, and composed original music for Oakland-based Dance Elixir. His score for the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s exhibition of Thoreau’s Walden: A Journey in Photography currently is touring the United States.

Froh mentors percussionists through UC Berkeley’s Young Musicians Program. He is also a faculty member at UC Davis, where he directs the Samba School and Percussion Group Davis.

[from program for February 8, 2010 concert]

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