Chris Stahlke was born in St. Mary's, ON on April 16, 1979. He was adopted at age 4 months into the Stahlke family by his mom and dad, Helen and John Stahlke. After living on a farm near Stratford, ON until he was 3, Chris' family decided to sell the farm and move into Stratford.When Chris was 4, his mom took him out of class in nursery school to go get sized for his first violin. It was a meeting of the fates, as Chris started taking lessons with Elizabeth Fraser and learned his craft quickly.Somewhere along the way, Chris' mom heard that it was a good idea for all violin students to try their hand at the piano, so, she got him signed up for lessons with Brian Emery, and surprisingly enough, he excelled at this instrument also.Many years and teachers passed on both instruments, including Andrea Barstadt, Patrick Burroughs, Sandra Stark, plus some master classes with Moshe Hammer and Lorend Fenyves on violin, and Dorothy Jones, Judith Crocker, Lou Bailey, Jim Hibbard, and Ian Sadler on piano. Chris even took his violin all the way to the University of Western Ontario, where he promptly dropped out after only a couple months due to lack of interest in classes and just needing to get away from school life altogether. Chris finished both his Gr. 10 Royal Conservatory Examinations for violin and piano by the age of 18, scoring an 80 for his violin, and a 90 for his piano.Chris has had the privilege of playing with some of Canada's finest orchestral groups on both violin and viola, including 2 years with The National Youth Orchestra of Canada, The Windsor Symphony, The International Symphony of Sarnia & Port Huron, The Clarion Symphony of Sarnia, Orchestra London, The London Community Orchestra, The Stratford Civic Ochestra, The London Youth Symphony, The Amadeus Youth Ensemble, and The Avanti String Quartet. He has also appeared on television on an episode of Danny Coughlan's Tree House.When he was 14, Chris was asked to play on the youth worship team at Jubilee Christian Fellowship in Stratford, ON. He readily obliged, and through playing with the team, and then with the adult worship team, Chris honed his rock, jazz, and blues skills on both violin and piano, became quite proficient on the bass, and even sat in on drums for several sessions. Chris also utilized his voice to his utmost potential, leading worship often on keys. Now, 13 years later, he's one of the main worship leaders at his church.Other than playing classical music, and doing worship at church, Chris has also been composing over the years, mostly on piano, and will be starting a solo CD project in the near future with Created For Productions, a company owned by his good friends Trevor & Lesley Biehn. Chris recently put out a CD with Created For entitled Imprint. Along with Heidi Lichti, another of the worship leaders at Jubilee, they spent 3 hours in-studio, listening to the Lord, and playing and singing out what they heard, creating a totally awesome, spontaneous soaking CD which has been sold in at least 10 countries since its release. You can hear selected tracks on this site, or go to www.soaking.net to download a couple more, or go to www.jubileecf.ca to purchase your very own copy.Chris' other interests include reading, playing computer games, watching lots of movies, and jamming out to his favorite tunes. His list of instruments that he plays includes: violin, viola, piano, double bass, electric bass, drums, harmonica, mandolin, guitar, tin whistle, and of course, his voice.If Chris ever got out of the music biz, his next ambition in life would be to become a cartoon voice actor. Chris finished a degree and demo CD at the National Institute of Broadcasting in 2001.If you would like Chris or Heidi to come play at your church, contact Trevor & Lesley Biehn at
[email protected] or visit www.jubileecf.ca for further email opportunities.
