Chris Arrell is a composer, electronic musician, and associate professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. His music, praised for its unconventional beauty by New Music Box, The Boston Musical Intelligencer, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has earned him commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Music at the Anthology, Boston Musica Viva, and Spivey Hall, among others.
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), NEXTET (University of Nevada—Las Vegas), and the Cape Fear New Music Festival (Methodist University), and guest residencies with Collide-O-Scope Music (New York) and AURA (University of Texas—Houston). A winner of the Bent Frequency 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.