Christopher Hardy

Background

About Christopher Hardy

Christopher Hardy is a highly acclaimed percussionist, recording artist, composer and educator. Chris has a background in Western percussion from the University of Michigan and is a hand drum specialist whose primary focus is on Middle Eastern, North African, West African, Brazilian and Latin percussion. He also performs and records in Renaissance, jazz, pop, rock, world music and other creative musical settings, and has synthesized this variety of influences to create a unique and individual voice. His solo CD Touch, released under the Victor label, was voted “Best Popular Album of 2002” in Japan. In addition to leading his own groups and founding Tokyo Groove Alliance, the Tokyo-based world music group, Chris has performed or recorded with such diverse artists as Sting, Hamza El Din, John Neptune, Kazumi Watanabe, Yosuke Yamashita, Eitetsu Hayashi (taiko), Ted Piltzecker, El Zafete and composers Lou Harrison, Elliot Carter, Kaoru Wada, Ohiro Minato and George Crumb. Chris has studied percussion with Michael Udow, jazz vibraphone with Ted Piltzecker and Arabic music with Hamza El Din. In addition to being on the percussion faculty at the Senzoku College of Music in Tokyo, he also presents lectures, master classes, workshops and school concerts. Chris has performed at the Edinburgh Festival and at major music festivals in Japan, as well as actively performing throughout Asia, Australia and the United States. Chris has produced and performed the music for events commemorating the “1200th Year of Kyoto’s Founding”and “50 Years After the End of W.W. II”, both command performances for the Emperor and Empress of Japan. Most recently, he performed with the resident Cirque du Soleil show, “Zed” and served as musical ensemble director for the Tokyo performances of the “O Vertigo” dance troupe (Canada). Chris can be heard on the Victor, JVC, Columbia, Denon, Polydor, EMI, Equilibrium and Sony labels.