Artist description Chris Vancil is currently an instructor at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa, FL, and is also a candidate for the Ph.D. in Music Composition at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he also received his M.A. in Composition in 1998. His first M.A., in Ethnomusicology, was awarded by the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1997. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in Theory and Composition in 1991 from Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee. At SUNY Stony Brook Chris has taught World Music, Tonal and Post-Tonal Theory, and has assisted in the teaching of Music of the Middle East. At the University of Hawaii he assisted in the teaching of the undergraduate theory sequence for music majors, Fundamentals of Music, the History of Rock, and the University Chorus. In 1992 Mr. Vancil traveled to Okinawa to participate in the annual classical music contest (Koten Geinou Konkuru), in the category of voice and sanshin (3-stringed Okinawan lute). Performing a 300 year old court song, he was one of over 350 contestants, of which only 72 were awarded the first level certificate, including Mr. Vancil. This achievement marks the first time a person of non-Japanese decent has been awarded this honor. While in Hawaii, he served as the Assistant Director of the 1992 EthnoSummer Festival of Music and Dance, held the position of Director of Morning Programs at the University Radio Station, developed and ran on-air radio programs focusing on New Orleans Jazz, Contemporary Classical Music, World Beat, and Alternative Country and Bluegrass, and performed as a member of the Okinawan music group Nakasone Seifu Kai, and as a member of the Japanese Sawai Koto School. As a koto player he has perfomed at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Weil Hall, Weslyan University, the East-West Center (Honolulu, HI), Central Park, and in Washington Square. He has performed with the internationally known koto players Kazue Sawai, Shoko Hikage, and Masayo Ishigure. Mr. Vancil is currently developing pickups to amplify the koto, for use in interactive computer pieces, and as a solo instrument. As an oboist, Mr. Vancil was first chair All-State Band in Virginia two of the three years he participated. He has also performed with the Belmont Symphony as a soloist, and with the Belmont Woodwind Quintet. He has premeired works for oboe by Carmela Sinco in Hawaii, and was selected to participate in the Festival Orchestra of San Juan in 1991. Mr. Vancil has also performed on flute, tenor and baritone sax, clarinet, bassoon, flugelhorn, marimba, and as a vocalist with the Belmont Chamber Singers, and with various local choirs. He has taught private lessons on oboe, clarinet, and koto. His current research interests include developing new methods of musical analysis, focusing on the intersection of gender politics and pop music in the work of the Israeli post-operative transsexual disco singer and 1998 Eurovision winner Dana International, the aesthetics of silence in the interactive, electroacoustic pieces of David Behrman and Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, contemporary koto music (by both Japanese and Western composers), the art of remixing (with emphasis on Indian film songs), and finding ways to get students personally involved and invested in thinking about and enjoying the vast array of musical cultures in the world. Most recently, his pieces Mitsu for chamber orchestra , and 5 x 5 for woodwind quintet were performed by the nationally renowned Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players. Other performances have taken place at the “Technology and Western Culture” conference held in Smithtown, NY, at the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching Inaugural Celebration in Stony Brook, NY, and at the Staller Center for the Arts at SUNY Stony Brook. Mr. Vancil has written pieces for chamber orchestra, koto and interactive electronics, various small chamber pieces (including a trio of soprano, Okinawan sanshin, and piano), string quartet, solo pieces for piano and oboe, and electroacoustic pieces created in Stony Brook’s analog and digital studios.

Music Style Classical/NewAge

Musical Influences George Winston, Frank Zappa, Debussy, Stravinsky

Location Tampa, FL - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).