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Chris L. Thompson is one of eight Resident Composers selected to participate in the 2025 Mizzou International Composers Festival. MICF Resident Ensemble Alarm Will Sound will perform his composition Shadows Uplifted at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, at Columbia’s Missouri Theatre. The concert is free and open to the public.
Christopher Thompson, also known as “Master Christopher,” is a multi-disciplined performer-composer who creates innovative ways to blur the distinction between genres. Through his project “Music Desegregation,” he merges contemporary art music, jazz, and percussion, with notated rap. Currently based in Philadelphia, PA, Chris serves as Lecturer of Music for the City University of New York at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, while also pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Composition at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Chris previously taught as the director of percussion studies at High Point University and is a proud alumnus of an HBCU, North Carolina A&T State University. Chris also holds a master’s degree in percussion performance and a post-baccalaureate certificate in Jazz Studies from the University of North Carolina Greensboro School of Music. Christopher Thompson currently serves on the board of the Alliance of Black Orchestral Percussionists, is a member of the Percussive Arts Society New Music/Research Committee, and is an endorsed artist for Marimba One and Black Swamp Percussion.
We recently chatted with him via email.
What is your musical background? When and how did you begin composing?
My artistic journey did not start as a composer. I was a professional percussionist who performed with various symphony orchestras, jazz ensembles, and even at the Eurovision Song Contest. Both my undergraduate and master’s degrees were in percussion performance, and I was formerly a percussion professor at a university, teaching both percussion ensemble and drumline. Throughout all of this, I have always loved hip-hop, so during the pandemic, in response to George Floyd, I began exploring composition as a solution to the issue of racial diversity within classical and contemporary music. I wanted to find authentic ways to merge contemporary classical music, percussion, and jazz, with notated rap.
How did you hear about MICF?
Through my composition professor at Peabody, Oscar Bettison. He believed that MICF and Alarm Will Sound would be an amazing opportunity and a great fit for my musical style.
Tell us about your piece that will be performed at MICF. What should we listen for?
My piece, Shadows Uplifted, is a multi-genre work that merges a contemporary chamber orchestra with notated rap and hip-hop. It features complex syncopation and polyrhythms that are passed between the ensemble while including both rap and spoken word. The composition is a combination of many of my favorite musical influences and styles, such as jazz, contemporary classical, percussion ensemble, film music, and 2000’s hip hop. I hope to take the listener on a journey through various episodes, exploring rhythmic perspectives from each of the aforementioned genres to investigate authentic intersections. I hope you can listen for ways that darkness and light interconnect, using both word and sound. There will be a lot going on in the piece, but I also hope you’ll be able to hear the lyrics, which serve to illuminate injustices of the past and shine a light on the shadows of our history. These lyrics also highlight historical figures and pay homage to Missouri native Maya Angelou.
What does it mean for you to work with an ensemble like Alarm Will Sound?
Feels like an opportunity of a lifetime! Anytime an ensemble of this level performs your piece, it is exhilarating but also nerve-racking! What I appreciated most, though, was their encouragement for me to be myself. I have always loved how tight they are as an ensemble, especially rhythmically, so I can’t wait to see what they do with my piece. Truly honored and grateful for the experience.
What do you hope to learn from your MICF experience?
I think what I am most excited for is to meet my peers, ensemble members, the guest faculty, and the team at MICF. I feel like I learn the most from my relationships and those around me, so I can’t wait to build some new ones at the festival. Compositionally speaking, every new piece is an experiment. I am excited to see what works and find new ways to improve my craft. I hope to be a sponge and soak up all I can while in Missouri, and I can’t wait to see what I take away from this experience.
For more information on Chris L. Thompson, visit his website.