Hosted by artist and composer Byron Westbrook, Chromatic Fields explores threads of overlap between ideas in contemporary art practice and music making. The program features new and historical avant-garde music ranging from minimalism to maximalism, including intermedia works, sound sculpture, electro-acoustic music, deep listening and sound artists operating in a conceptual field.

This month’s special episode of Chromatic Fields showcases renowned cellist and performer/composer Charles Curtis, featuring two hours of selections curated by Curtis.

Born in Laguna Beach, California in 1960, Charles Curtis has followed a unique path through the worlds of concert performance and musical experimentation. A student of Harvey Shapiro and Leonard Rose at Juilliard and the recipient of the Piatigorsky Prize, upon graduation Curtis was appointed to the faculty of Princeton University. Subsequently he was Principal Cellist of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg for ten years, appearing as soloist with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, André Previn, Günter Wand, John Eliot Gardiner and Christoph Eschenbach. Curtis has also been guest soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, and Janacek Philharmonic, among many others.

His long creative relationships with experimentalists La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, Alvin Lucier, Tashi Wada and Éliane Radigue have brought into being a body of distinctive works modeled on his cello-playing and performing persona. His own creative work has spanned sound-based and installatory work in galleries and alternative spaces, as well as experimental rock merging sustained sine waves and spoken word. He has made original music for experimental films by artists such as Raha Raissnia, Luke Fowler and Jeff Perkins. Very recent performances have taken Curtis to Empty Gallery in Hong Kong, the Biennale Son in Valais, Switzerland, Blank Forms in New York, EMPAC in Troy, New York, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, Berlin’s Singuhr Galerie, and London’s Café Oto for a four-concert series of solo evenings.

In addition to his performing, Curtis has taught since 2000 at the University of California, San Diego, where he is now Distinguished Professor of Music.