Christian Carey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Music Composition, History, and Theory at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where he has been a faculty member since 2004. He received degrees from the Juilliard School (B.Mus. in Voice), Boston University (M.M. in Composition), and Rutgers University (Ph.D. in Composition and Theory); his teachers included Charles Wuorinen and Lukas Foss. He is active as a composer, performer, and music theorist.

His compositions have been performed by the Halcyon Trio, Locrian Chamber Players, New York New Music Ensemble, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Ionisation, singing cellist Jody Redhage, organist Joseph Arndt, and the Helix New Music Ensemble, at Lincoln Center, the June in Buffalo Festival, the Music Academy of the West, Aula Magna della Facoltà Valdese di Teologia in Rome, Italy, the Aspen Music Festival, Two River Theater Company, the Montclair Art Museum, Meredith College, the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco, Jan Hus Church (Modus Novus Concert Series) Cornelia Street Café, the Progressions Series in Baltimore, Maryland, and Music ‘99 at the University of Cincinnati. Mourning Madrid, a work for orchestra and live locomotive, was commissioned by the Music Festival of the Hamptons and performed in July, 2004 by the Atlantic Chamber Orchestra and the Long Island Railroad in Bridgehampton, New York.

Carey’s research focuses on contemporary American music; his dissertation discussed Elliott Carter’s Fifth String Quartet. Last year, he was awarded an NEA Grant to write a study guide for Merkin Hall's presentation of Carter's complete music for winds. On Carter’s hundredth birthday, he gave a paper on the composer’s late concerti at IRCAM in Paris as part of the conference Hommage à Elliott Carter. The presentation was subsequently broadcast over Radio France. A publication of the conference’s proceedings will be published later this year by Editions Delatour. He was interviewed about Carter by Andrea Shea for the December 11, 2008 edition of Here and Now on NPR. Carey also gave a talk about the late concerti at San Francisco State University this past February as part of the Illuminations and Reflections conference. An article on recent Carter recordings is currently in preparation for American Music.

He has also written about a number of other composers: Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, David Rakowski, Lukas Foss, Morton Feldman, and Ralph Shapey. Carey also writes about jazz and popular music. His articles and reviews have been published in Tempo, Signal to Noise, Muso, Musicworks, Sequenza 21, Copper Press, All About Jazz, Pop Matters, and several other publications. He’s a Contributing Editor at Sequenza 21, where his weblog, File Under ? is updated daily (www.sequenza21.com/carey)

Prior to his current appointment, Carey taught music theory and was Coordinator of the Aural Skills Program at the Manhattan School of Music. He has also taught at William Paterson University, Seton Hall University, and the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York. He serves on the board of the New Jersey Arts Collective, a nonprofit interdisciplinary arts organization; he also serves as faculty advisor to Westminster’s student chapter of Society for Composers, Inc. He is Minister of Music at East Brunswick Congregational Church (UCC) in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

For more information visit: http://www.sequenza21.com/carey or www.myspace.com/christiancareycomposer