Dr. Christopher B. Anderson

Since completing his doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Christopher Anderson’s services as a pedagogue have been in high demand throughout the Midwest. From 2008-2023, he served as Adjunct Instructor of music at Richland Community College in Decatur, IL, where he taught music theory and history courses. From 2020-2023, he was also Instructor of Saxophone and Clarinet at Parkland College in Champaign, IL. In 2022, Dr. Christopher Anderson joined the faculty of University of Northern Iowa  as Instructor of Saxophone and in 2023 also began teaching Music Theory. Additionally, Dr. Anderson joined the faculty of Wartburg College in the Fall of 2022 as Senior Lecturer of Saxophone. In addition to his instructional duties at University of Northern Iowa, Wartburg College, Parkland College and Richland Community College, Dr. Anderson was appointed as Adjunct Instructor of Saxophone at the University of Iowa for Spring 2023 as sabbatical replacement for Dr. Kenneth Tse, and Lecturer of Saxophone at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the Fall 2016 semester as sabbatical replacement for Professor Debra Richtmeyer. 

 

Dr. Anderson has maintained a private studio of nearly 40 saxophone and clarinet students in the Champaign-Urbana area since first accepting students in 2010. Students in his studio regularly earn top chairs in the ILMEA District 3 concert and jazz bands as well as All-State bands. Students in his studio who have chosen to study music beyond high school have been accepted to prestigious studios throughout the country and received scholarships to continue their studies.

 

When not teaching, Dr. Anderson has established himself internationally as a specialist in new music for saxophone. As a result of his enthusiastic and imaginative approach to new music, he has had numerous works dedicated to him and has had the opportunity to collaborate with many composers and has premiered works by Dr. Stephen Andrew Taylor, Shawn Allison, Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, Robert Lemay, and Christian Lauba.

 

As a soloist, Dr. Anderson made his concerto debut with the Prairie Ensemble performing Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da Camera. He has had the opportunity to perform Milhaud’s La Création du Monde with Sinfonia da Camera and the Mark Morris Dance Group at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. He has also had the opportunity to present programs throughout the United States and France, and regularly presents at North American Saxophone Alliance and World Saxophone Congress conferences.

 

Dr. Anderson hails from Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he studied saxophone with Ida Wiedeman and Tod Kerstetter. After graduating from Greenwood High School, he went on to earn a Bachelor of Music from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with Eugene Rousseau and Otis Murphy. His Master’s Degree is from Ithaca College, where he was graduate teaching assistant in saxophone under the tutelage of Steven Mauk. In 2014 he completed his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was the graduate teaching assistant in saxophone and studied with Debra Richtmeyer. Dr. Anderson has had additional studies in saxophone and modern music with Jean-Yves Fourmeau, Connie Frigo, Kenneth Fischer, Tom Liley, Christian Lauba, Richard Ducros, and Kenneth Tse.

 

Dr. Christopher Anderson is a Vandoren Artist Clinician and performs exclusively on Vandoren Mouthpieces, Ligatures, and Reeds.