Chris Cresswell

A composer, songwriter, educator, guitarist, and radio host, Chris Cresswell is a curious musician whose work betrays his affection for sonic wanderlust. With an ear that incorporates all sorts of sounds, from field recordings to a singer/songwriter at an open mic night, Cresswell’s music “… blurs the boundaries between industrial and organic, soothing and suspenseful, and introspective and anxious” (International Clarinet Association) and “…is not really my thing, but it’s cool to hear him on the radio.” (his Mom). Having once shared the stage with a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and a Top 40 country star (two different occasions), Cresswell’s music has been heard in coffee shops, concert halls, and venues around the world, from chic Brooklyn venues like Areté Venue and Gallery and The Firehouse Space, to Birmingham, England’s renown Symphony Hall and the Paleis voor Schone Kunsten in Brussels.

Recent performances include Tammy Evans Yonce’s world premiere of of even the beautiful, for glissando flute and electronics at the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center in Brookings, South Dakota. He recently finished this is where I am right now for piano and electronics for pianist Anne H. Goldberg-Baldwin, that will be recorded for her debut album on PARMA Records. Currently, he is working on a multimedia project with poet Tim Carter, based on his book Remains and a series of works for solo instrument and electronics. He is slated to release three albums in 2021, a newly remixed and mastered version of his 2014 sound installation, I was walking home… or at least I thought I was walking home, a collection of his early work, Coffee, Work, Sleep, Repeat (2010-2017), and the release of studio recordings of Patrick Ellis’s detunes, drones and Adam Scott Neal’s cords, two works for electric guitar and electronics. In May 2021, Cresswell will perform a recital of works for solo electric guitar and electric guitar and electronics that includes Everette Minchew’s Monody: In Memoriam Charles Wourinen, a work that Cresswell co-commissioned. 

He currently teaches music composition at Onondaga Community College, is the founder of One Mic Project, a music education business that offers private and group lessons, and can be heard on WCNY-FM (91.3 FM, Syracuse) on Wednesday mornings from 6 am to 10 am.