Chris Arrell is a composer and associate professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. His compositions, praised for their unconventional beauty by New Music Box, The Boston Music Intelligencer, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among others, have received commissions from organizations such as the Alte Schmiede, Boston Musica Viva, Music at the Anthology, and the Fromm Music Foundation (Harvard University).
Arrell's invitations include a portrait concert at the Alte Schmiede (Austria), selection as the featured guest composer for the Pellegrini Festival of New Music (Ball State University) and NEXTET (University of Nevada—Las Vegas), and guest residencies with AURA (University of Texas—Houston) and Collide-O-Scope Music (New York). A winner of the Bent Frequency's Underscore call-for-scores, Arrell is also a first-prize winner of the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer's Award, and the International Ossia Music Prize. Additional honors include residencies at the MacDowell Colony and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, recognitions from the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Award and the League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music, and selection as a participant in a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program to Chile and Argentina.
Arrell's publishers include Ablaze Records, Beauport Classical, Electroshock Records, Navona, Parma Recordings, SCI, and Trevco Music.