🔉👋 Hey, I’m Chris. I write music, write about music, and play percussion in contemporary chamber-band Alarm Will Sound.
Music and Math and Feelings is for curious listeners who wish “music discovery” came with a little more context than offered by the streaming services and social media. It explores a broad range of musical topics: from just intonation to electronic music to drum corps to artist mental health.
I also use this space to explore, analyze, and visualize the music of my favorite artists and colleagues, as well as share my own. Start here for a taste of the most popular posts.
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About Me. My path began in a drum & bugle corps when I was 15 — I performed with the Santa Clara Vanguard as a tenor player for two years (and lived to tell about it). I started composing around the same time, with the influence of marching percussion always right beneath the surface.
That was followed by music school for percussion performance and composition — first at UCLA, then at Juilliard. For the past 20 years I’ve been performing contemporary music and Broadway shows in New York City.
In 2008, I joined the contemporary chamber music band Alarm Will Sound, who have become my family and with whom I still perform today.
I have released five solo albums that lean heavily into electronic music, marching percussion, and microtonality (particularly just intonation) — my music also tells stories about my own and our collective mental health.
Are you a vinyl, cd, or bandcamp person? Well hello there. Meet me here.
Also visit chrispthompson.com for everything.
