Christian Asplund
From College of Fine Arts and Communications
Composer, violist, harmoniumist, and opera director, Christian Asplund has played his compositions in the Seattle area, Oregon, Oklahoma, Utah, Canadian, and British clubs, venues, festivals, and performance spaces with out-jazz ensembles (Brainstun, Aitsi), improvising string groups (Thingsome Q and String Beast), choral groups (Seattle Experimental Opera Chorus), and as a solo artist to rave reviews.
Asplund is one of only two composers (along with Alan Hovhaness) to be featured in the Encyclopedia of Northwest Music. His most recent CD with Brainstun was released by Present Sounds in June 2003. He was the only American finalist in the prestigious Genesis Prizes in April 2002, whereby his opera-in-progress, Sunset with Pink Pastoral, received a premier at London's Sadlers Wells Theatre by Almeida Opera. His compositions have also been premiered by Eyvind Kang, Stuart Dempster, Marilyn Crispell, Seattle Creative Orchestra, and others.
His music has been described in the press as "mind-blowing," "toothy," inscrutable," "ethereal," superb" and "just plain absolutely beautiful." He was also a co-founder of Seattle Experimental Opera which has premiered works by Eyvind Kang, Amy Denio, Jessica Lurie, and others as well as five of his own operas, one of which, The Archivist, has been released in its entirety as a CD on Un-labeled Records. Another CD of the opera, Liquid Girls, was released in 2004. He has appeared on other CDs released by Sparkling Beatnik, Acoustic Levitation, Tzadik, Franchise, and Present Sounds and Maritime Fist Glee Club.
He has played with Stuart Dempster, Eyvind Kang, Amy Denio, Michael Bisio, Craig Flory, Francois Houle, Bill Smith, Andrew Drury, and Greg Campbell. In April 2004 he made his debut as a member of New York's Downtown Ensemble. He has made many live radio appearances and his recordings have been broadcast all over the world. He has a Masters degree from Mills College and a DMA from University of Washington. His teachers have included Alvin Curran, Chris Brown, Meyer Kupferman, Thea Musgrave, Willy Winant, and John Rahn. He currently resides in Provo, UT where he is Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at Brigham Young University.
