Biography
Percussionist Chris P. Thompson maintains an active career both as a composer and as a performer of his own works alongside those of fellow creators, while also producing electronic music.
Born Christopher Paul Thompson, he spent his formative years in California's Silicon Valley during the 1980s and 1990s. In his teenage period he spent several years participating in a drum-and-bugle corps that traveled across the United States. Marching percussion left a lasting mark on his musical outlook; he singled out the informal warmups known as parking lot shows, in which players performed for spectators prior to the formal stadium concerts. "Starting in the early '90s," Thompson recalled to Fifteen Questions, "some of these 'exercises' started to get very composer-y and look a lot more like 'pieces'; they were a massive inspiration to write my own music."
He completed his undergraduate studies at UCLA in 2001 before enrolling at the Juilliard School in New York, from which he earned a degree in 2003. His principal instructors were Mitchell Peters and Daniel Druckman.
Thompson remained in New York, where he joined or appeared with several prominent contemporary-music ensembles, among them Alarm Will Sound, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the ensemble tied to composer Tyondai Braxton's HIVE project. Further compositional development followed when he began arranging electronic material for Alarm Will Sound, an affiliation that continued into the mid-2020s. His output merges electronic music, marching percussion, and contemporary classical traditions. Performance partnerships have encompassed artists from Björk to members of the Metropolitan Opera. One of his earliest recorded appearances came as vibraphonist on the 2013 They Might Be Giants album Nanobots.
His initial releases—the EP Lot Hero (2017) and the LP Everything Imaginable Comes True (2019)—incorporated contemporary drum-and-bugle idioms while also spotlighting figures from New York's avant-garde community. Two further albums have appeared on the Grin Agog label: True Stories & Rational Numbers (2020) and Stay the Same (2024).
Born Christopher Paul Thompson, he spent his formative years in California's Silicon Valley during the 1980s and 1990s. In his teenage period he spent several years participating in a drum-and-bugle corps that traveled across the United States. Marching percussion left a lasting mark on his musical outlook; he singled out the informal warmups known as parking lot shows, in which players performed for spectators prior to the formal stadium concerts. "Starting in the early '90s," Thompson recalled to Fifteen Questions, "some of these 'exercises' started to get very composer-y and look a lot more like 'pieces'; they were a massive inspiration to write my own music."
He completed his undergraduate studies at UCLA in 2001 before enrolling at the Juilliard School in New York, from which he earned a degree in 2003. His principal instructors were Mitchell Peters and Daniel Druckman.
Thompson remained in New York, where he joined or appeared with several prominent contemporary-music ensembles, among them Alarm Will Sound, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the ensemble tied to composer Tyondai Braxton's HIVE project. Further compositional development followed when he began arranging electronic material for Alarm Will Sound, an affiliation that continued into the mid-2020s. His output merges electronic music, marching percussion, and contemporary classical traditions. Performance partnerships have encompassed artists from Björk to members of the Metropolitan Opera. One of his earliest recorded appearances came as vibraphonist on the 2013 They Might Be Giants album Nanobots.
His initial releases—the EP Lot Hero (2017) and the LP Everything Imaginable Comes True (2019)—incorporated contemporary drum-and-bugle idioms while also spotlighting figures from New York's avant-garde community. Two further albums have appeared on the Grin Agog label: True Stories & Rational Numbers (2020) and Stay the Same (2024).
Albums
