About

Chris Robinson is a bassist, composer, and arranger based in Hartford, CT. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.M. in Music Education from Keene State College in Keene, NH in 2012. He completed his M.M. in Jazz Composition and Arranging at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA in 2020.

Chris has studied bass with Don Baldini, Mark Carlson, Bruce Gertz, Marcus McLaurine, Steve Cady, and Fumi Tomita. His composition teachers include Heather Gilligan, Jeffrey W. Holmes, Felipe Salles, and Salvatore Macchia.

Chris has taught bass, brass, music theory, and ear training lessons privately and at schools for over ten years, including tutor and instructor positions at Keene State College and The Putney School in Putney, VT. He was co-director of the Jazz Lab Ensemble at UMass from 2019 to 2020.

Chris’s music has been played by many ensembles throughout the United States, including the Amherst Jazz Orchestra, the Keene Jazz Orchestra, the University of Massachusetts Jazz Ensemble 1, and the University of Connecticut Jazz Ensemble. He has written and arranged for the Turning Blues Jazz Combo of the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence Band, the Franklin Pierce University Marching Band, and the University of Massachusetts Jazz Lab Ensemble, among others.

As a bassist, Chris has performed on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines and played in countless general business bands, wedding bands, and regional professional musical theater shows throughout New England. Since 2015, he has subbed in the house band at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH for the Writers on a New England Stage lecture and interview series, supporting events featuring Tom Brokaw, Patti Smith, and Leslie Stahl, among many others.

As part of the UMass Odd Meters combo, Chris received an award from Downbeat Magazine in 2019 for Outstanding Performance for a Graduate College Blues/Pop/Rock Group. He currently performs with singers Rebecca Holtz, Taylor Mickens, Red Jasper, rock duo Colors and Patterns, and various jazz, rock, and pop groups throughout New England.

photography by Thú Tran, Jayla McCall, and UMass Amherst