Christopher Hobbs

Christopher Hobbs, a pioneer in the field of Systemic Music in Britain, was born in 1950. He studied with Cornelius Cardew at the Royal Academy of Music and was the youngest member of the Scratch Orchestra when it began in 1969. In that year he also joined the improvisation group AMM. In 1970 he, along with John White, Hugh Shrapnel and Alec Hill, formed the Promenade Theatre Orchestra. After its disbandment in 1973 he and White continued as a duo. A pianist and percussionist as well as a composer Hobbs has performed with a large number of individuals - Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, John Tilbury, Christian Wolff among others - and has written music for a large variety of ensembles and situations. He taught music at The Drama Centre, London, from 1973-1991. Other teaching posts include guest lectureships at Redlands University, California and continuing lectureships at De Montfort and Coventry Universities. In 1968 he founded the Experimental Music Catalogue which was relaunched by Virginia Anderson and Hobbs in 2000. Since 2005 he has made over 45 pieces using GarageBand software and systemic procedures based on Sudoku grids. A double CD of this music was issued by EMC in December 2006. As well as his own music and that of his friends he has been particularly associated with the work of Erik Satie, giving a celebrated performance with Gavin Bryars of Vexations in 1971 and premiering the complete score to Le Fils des Etoiles, Satie's longest through-composed piece, in 1989. He has subsequently recorded the work twice and published a critical edition of the score through EMC.