Chris Walden (born 10 October 1966) is a seven-time Grammy nominated German composer, arranger, and conductor living in the U.S. He leads the Chris Walden Big Band,[1] and is the founder and artistic director of the Pacific Jazz Orchestra.[2]
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. He started writing arrangements for local school big bands at age 16. He graduated from high school at age 19 and went on to study popular music at the Music Academy in Hamburg. At age 21 he moved to Cologne, Germany to study with trumpeters Jon Eardley and Malte Burba and arranger Jerry van Rooyen at the Cologne University of Music. He graduated in 1994 with two Masters of Music in trumpet and composition/arrangement.
In 1987 he joined the then newly formed German National Youth Jazz Orchestra (BuJazzO)[5] as a trumpet player. Its leader Peter Herbolzheimer early on noticed Walden's interest in arranging and composing and became an important mentor for Walden.
Early career in Germany
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. He 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. He continued to play trumpet at various studio recordings and musical theater.
In 1991 he assisted Peter Herbolzheimer in orchestrating the music to the German feature film "Schtonk!", which received an Oscar nomination in the category "Best Foreign Language Film". This led to work as a composer for more feature films and many TV movies and series in Germany, and Walden quickly became an in demand film composer in Germany.
He served as the musical director for four years for the televised German Movie Award show "Deutscher Filmpreis".[6]
In 1999, he founded the Chris Walden Big Band,[1] which consists of Los Angeles based studio musicians. With this band he recorded three albums. The first received two Grammy Award nominations in 2005.[9]
In 2015 Walden served as conductor and arranger for the 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors on CBS. In 2019 he was appointed lead arranger for the Academy Awards on ABC.
In 2022 Walden founded the Pacific Jazz Orchestra,[14] a non-profit 40-piece ensemble in Los Angeles, for which he serves as artistic director.
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.
