What city are you living in now? Annapolis, MD
Where did you study? University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (B.M. Composition/Trumpet, M.M. Trumpet), Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University (M.M. Musicology, D.M.A. Trumpet)
What is your favorite piece of music? This isn’t really fair. I suppose the piece I’ve spent the most time studying is Giovanni Gabrieli’s second book of Sacrae Symphoniae (posthumous, 1615). But as far as common-practice era music, you can’t beat Bach’s Mass in B minor.
What do you enjoy in your spare time? My day job is an an arranger for the U.S. Navy Band, so I spend a lot of time in the studio writing music. When I have time to spare, I enjoy running, gardening, cooking and spending time with my wife, two daughters, three dogs and a cat.
What is your fondest Annapolis Symphony memory? Probably playing Respighi’s Pines of Rome at the Music Center at Strathmore, but I also love our annual concert at Quiet Waters.
Christopher Buchanan has been a member of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra since 2013. He was born and raised in Fairfax, Virginia and holds Bachelor of Music degrees (summa cum laude) in composition and trumpet from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also received a Master of Music degree in trumpet. Additionally, he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in trumpet and a Master of Music in musicology from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where his research into the life and music of Giovanni Gabrieli garnered him the Irving Lowens Endowed Prize in Musicology.
He studied trumpet with Ronald Romm, Michael Ewald, Joe Burgstaller and Edward Hoffman and studied composition and orchestration with Stephen Taylor, Zack Browning, and Joel Puckett. He has also performed with the Richmond, Williamsburg, Charlottesville, and Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestras, Maryland Lyric Opera, and served on the faculty of the University of Virginia.
He formerly was a member of the U.S. Naval Academy Band and U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C., where he currently serves as Chief Arranger. His arrangements and compositions have been performed by numerous U.S. service bands as well as university wind ensembles across the country.