Bio

Chrysanthe Tan (they/them) is a Cambodian-Greek-American composer, violinist, and poet named by Arts Boston as 1 of 10 Contemporary LGBTQ Composers You Should Know in 2018. Their work incorporates spoken word, looping pedals, sleepy voice memos, hints of Greek folk music, nostalgic Cambodian pop, cat cameos, electronic sampling, sensory soothing, and a healthy dose of oversharing.

The written and spoken word are inextricable accomplices to Chrysanthe’s compositional practice. Chrysanthe’s fixation on language stems from their lifelong challenges with verbal processing and neurotypical communication. It wasn’t until after college that Chrysanthe was diagnosed as autistic, bringing many prior questions into focus. 

Following the release of their first album Stories (2015), Chrysanthe completed the Sound/Word Composer Residency in Syros, Greece (2016) and went on to have their work performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rockefeller Center, New Orleans Jazz Festival’s Rising Artist Series, US Embassy in Cambodia, ÆPEX Contemporary, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Syros Sound Meetings, University of Arkansas, California State University Northridge, and more.

As a violinist, Chrysanthe straddles the pop and experimental worlds, having toured the world as Ariana Grande’s lead violinist and string arranger (2015), toured a couple continents with Paul Anka (2014-2017), recorded on Halsey’s double platinum album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, performed with PJ Morton, Alicia Keys, Marco Antonio Solís, Common, and Bastille, and appeared throughout season 4 of the FOX series Glee. Chrysanthe also plays in a violin-guitar duo called Duo Meranti, which features contemporary classical and folk-oriented music from the Los Angeles and Balkan diasporas. 

Chrysanthe earned their BA in English/Creative Writing from Stanford University, an MFA in Creative Writing from California Institute of the Arts, and an MFA in Composition/Violin Performance from CalArts. In addition to their work as a musician, Chrysanthe is an active writer whose poems, stories, and handmade chapbooks appear in places like The Volta 365, Dum Dum Zine, Selfish Magazine, Yale University and CalArts libraries. Their articles about autistic accessibility appear in publications them. and New Music USA’s NewMusicBox, and their radio piece “Classical Music Through an Autistic Lens” lives on the KUSC/KDFC blog. In 2019, Chrysanthe was nominated for a National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for their radio piece on “The Genius of Disneyland Sound Design.” Since the onset of the pandemic, Chrysanthe has delved further into music criticism and commentary, aiming to deepen their participation in the new music landscape and add their voice to this historically white/male-dominated field. In 2022, Chrysanthe was selected as 1 of 18 Fellows for the biennial Rubin Institute for Music Criticism at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They’re currently a contributing writer at the San Francisco Classical Voice (SFCV) and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN.

Chrysanthe hosts a podcast called Star Wars Music Minute, in which they analyze the music of Star Wars films 5 cinematic minutes at a time.

High-res photos for promotional use below. Photo credits as captioned.