Chris Walden was born on 10 October 1966 and is a seven-time Grammy nominated German composer, arranger, and conductor living in the US He leads the Chris Walden Big Band, and is the founder and artistic director of the Pacific Jazz Orchestra.
20 Facts About Chris Walden
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Chris Walden has written big band and orchestral arrangements for Michael Buble, Diana Krall, Jennifer Hudson, Paul Anka, and Christopher Cross.
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Since 2019 Walden has been the lead arranger at the Academy Awards.
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Chris Walden was an arranger for the TV series American Idol from 2007 to 2016.
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Chris Walden has worked extensively for record producers David Foster, Phil Ramone, and Tommy LiPuma.
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Chris Walden has composed for films and TV in the US and in Germany, including the long-running TV-series Dr Stefan Frank.
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Chris Walden grew up in Hamburg, West Germany where he learned to play the recorder at age 5, the piano at age 8, and the trumpet at age 13, which then became his main instrument.
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Chris Walden started writing arrangements for local school big bands at age 16.
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Chris Walden graduated from high school at age 19 and went on to study popular music at the Music Academy in Hamburg.
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Chris Walden started to work professionally as a musician in his teens playing the trumpet in dance bands on weekends while still attending high school in Hamburg.
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Chris Walden received his first professional arranging assignments through his mentor Peter Herbolzheimer and after moving to Cologne he went on to write arrangements for many of the German radio big bands and radio symphony orchestras.
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Chris Walden continued to play trumpet at various studio recordings and musical theater.
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Chris Walden served as the musical director for four years for the televised German Movie Award show "Deutscher Filmpreis".
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In 1996 at the age of 29, Chris Walden moved to Los Angeles.
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Chris Walden wrote scores for television movies and arrangements for Christopher Cross, Michael Bolton, Renee Olstead, Nancy Wilson, and Paul Anka.
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Chris Walden continued to work for German television and musicians, such as Till Bronner, Al Bano, and David Hasselhoff.
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Chris Walden has written arrangements for television appearances by Faith Hill, Christina Aguilera, Katie Holmes, Aretha Franklin, Yolanda Adams, Melissa Etheridge.
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In 2015 Chris Walden served as conductor and arranger for the 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors on CBS.
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In 2022 Chris Walden founded the Pacific Jazz Orchestra, a non-profit 40-piece ensemble in Los Angeles, for which he serves as artistic director.
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Chris Walden's works encompass 40 feature and TV films, more than 100 episodes of TV series, and more than 1500 arrangements for big band or symphony orchestra.