Chris Spheeris

Chris Spheeris, recognized as a new age composer and multi-instrumentalist, first picked up the guitar to write songs while still a teenager. Drawing from the sacred and folk traditions of his Greek ancestry alongside broader currents in world music, classical repertoire, and pop, he blended these sources into a singular personal idiom. Folk textures defined his initial phase, when he performed as half of a duo with guitarist and composer Paul Voudouris across the 1970s and into the early 1980s. Once that partnership dissolved, Spheeris turned to denser, keyboard-centered arrangements and preserved them on self-made demo tapes. One such tape reached the A&R staff at Columbia Records, resulting in a recording contract signed in 1985. The label issued his debut album Desires of the Heart and the follow-up Pathways to Surrender; he departed in the early 1990s to establish his own imprint, Essence, which subsequently handled the bulk of his solo catalog as well as the duo reunions Enchantment and Nothing but the Truth. Beyond his own releases, Spheeris has scored documentaries for cable and public television. His first project for Higher Octave Records, Dancing With the Muse, appeared in early 2000.