Christopher Best - composer

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Christopher Best is a composer specialising in concert, stage and acousmatic music. Commissioning groups have included the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Fisarchi Ensemble of Florence, Scottish Dance Theatre, Emilyn Claid & Co., Jamaican National Dance and Bimba Dance Theatre. Works have also been written for ensembles such as Aquarius, Jane's Minstrels, Kokoro, the choir of Selwyn College Cambridge and Onyx Brass.

He places particular emphasis on collaboration and has worked with such distinguished artists as pianists Michael Finnissy and Ian Pace, dancer-choreographers Emilyn Claid, Kenneth Tharp, Janet Smith, Gill Clarke and Sarah Whatley, accordionist Miloš Milivojević, trumpeter Alan Thomas, cellist Rohan de Saram, guitarists Aleksandra Sapok and Matthew Marshall, organists Simon Hogan and Daniel Hyde, harpist Ruth Wall and flautist William Sleath. Chris's music has received widespread critical acclaim and been performed and broadcast internationally.

Recent output includes 'Lakewood' for solo guitar; 'Missa Mensura', a setting of the Latin mass for chorus and chamber ensemble; the acousmatic works 'Once It Is Over' and 'Worlds I-V', 'Hawaiki - Six Conceptions' for chorus and orchestra; 'Clarion Song' for trumpet and organ; 'Odes and Episodes' and 'Echoes of a Lost Music', both for electric guitar; and 'Scending' for flutes and accordion.

Between 2010 and 2025 Chris held a senior lectureship at Falmouth University, having formerly been Reader in music composition at Dartington College of Arts in Devon. He has taught extensively throughout the UK and abroad, and co-directed residential music and dance exchanges in Devon, Manchester, London and Madrid.

For full details of all available compositions, please refer to the Works page.