Christopher Kennedy Alpiar is an award-winning saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer and media composer
. His specialization as a performer is in the Jazz, free-Jazz and Avant-garde Jazz idioms, but he is "...in love with every form of music made by humans". As a writer, his expertise is in large orchestral compositions and Jazz large and small ensemble works, and with his background equally balanced in Jazz and orchestral music, he is considered a composer's composer, who not only can communicate emotion with every audience, but who also makes art from it.
Chris has been a Jazz saxophonist for over 25 years. As an instrumentalist and studio musician he has had the unique pleasure of recording as a sideman on hundreds of recording sessions and spent a significant amount of time touring Europe and South America. His experiences as a performer encompass every genre of music currently catalogued, including: Pop, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Hip Hop, Alternative Heavy Rock, R&B, Acid Jazz, Reggae, Souca, Calypso, Salsa, Merengue, Coumbia, Big Band, Grunge, Death Metal, Ska, Avant-Garde, and so many others. He has shared the stage with Jazz greats including Joe Lovano, Bob Meyer, Matt Pavolka, Randy Brecker, Peter Erskine, Eliane Elias, Michelle Petrucciani, Will Lee, and many others.
Through his worldly experiences he spent much of that time in studious awe of different world culture and their natural musics. His education includes performance and sound engineering majors at Miami-Dade College, performance and Jazz composition majors at Berklee College of Music in Boston (where he won the Quincy Jones Award for Jazz composition) studying with Jazz legends including Herb Pomeroy, George Garzone, Andy McGhee, Ken Pullig and Billy Pierce. And 3 years of study of the Ewe and Dagomba drumming and music from Ghana by master drummer Abubakari Lunna and ethnomusicologist David Locke.
With extensive knowledge in audio engineering, multi-media production and using MIDI as a composition tool, Mr. Alpiar's focus on technology and the internet led him to the creation of Businessounds, Inc., a multimedia technology company in South Florida. He was hired by Seattle based InfoSpace, Inc in 1998 which eventually 
led to the creation of InfoSpace Studios, where he designed, built and managed a million dollar facility for video tracking and post-production, and an international RealServer webcasting facility. Pioneering ideas showcased at RealNetworks and Macromedia websites, Mr. Alpiar fathered several multi-media concepts for the internet with audio, animation, and video.
Since that time, Chris has been actively involved as a composer, writing for orchestra, jazz ensembles, rock and pop bands, hip hop tracks, and all manner of known (and unknown) musical styles. He spent a year co-writing a Broadway musical with composer John Comfort: "Shapin' Up", a modern comedy play by Scott Adler.
Chris is currently residing in Atlanta, GA in the USA, where he is very active as a Jazz solo artist and studio musician, local and abroad, as well as a media composer for film, TV and stage theater, and as a producer of Jazz and popular music out of his studio at the 800 East complex in the Old Fourth Ward area of Atlanta. Chris is the CEO of AlpsMedia, LLC, a music production company; CEO and Creative Director for BeHip Records, a new indy Jazz record label; President of the International Alliance of Composers, a composer rights advocacy organization; Owner of Alpiar Music Publishing, LLC;
Currently in the works from the studio: are 2 free-Jazz records being produced from Chris' NYC Quartet "The Chris Alpiar Quartet" that were recorded at Right Track Studios in Manhattan in the mid-90s. This album features Chris on Tenor Saxophone, Pete Rende on Piano, Matt Pavolka on Bass and Bob Meyer on Drums; Chris just finished this last year recording, arranging, composing originals, producing and performing on a new Jazz vocal release, "Wanderlust", the debut album for premiere Jazz vocalist Bobbi Wilson; Chris is currently hard at work on a studio release with his new Brazilian/ Americana-roots/ Jazz fusion band "800 Giants" featuring Chris on Tenor and Soprano Sax and Melodica, Ben Holst on Guitars, Pedal and Lap Steel Guitars; Jez Graham on Piano and Fender Rhodes; Vlamir Abbud on Basses, and Darren Stanley on Drums. Their debut album is expected to be released this summer.
Further Listening and Reading about Chris: