Chris van Voorst van Beest - Bye Design

Chris van Voorst van Beest is an American bassist and composer who grew up in Maine and lives in Brooklyn, NY. Hailed as "a double bassist with an exceptional ability to improvise," (Erminio Garotta - Sound & Vision) Chris has been fortunate to have performed and/or recorded with artists as diverse as Frank Kimbrough, Robert Glasper, Gabriel Kahane, and Joe Lovano. Known for his big sound and lyrical bass lines, Chris has emerged as a unique voice within New York's jazz and improvised music community, playing as a sideman in a variety of ensembles, leading his own trio, and writing original music; most recently releasing his debut record as a leader "Bye Design" (Adhyaropa Records). Also a frequent multi-genre collaborator, Chris has composed and performed incidental music for dance (*Nest*, w/ choreographer Kelly Ashton Todd), chamber music for a book (*The Lamplighter*), and is currently co-producing a record of Americana songs, to be released in early 2025. As a writer, Chris is as much informed by a deep love of classical composers as he is by his heroes of jazz and popular music. Writing music for both improvisation and 'classical' settings, a listener can hear the influences spill into one another, evident in his most recent work *Quintet for Winds* (see Chamber Music page), which draws as much inspiration from the lush harmonies of Duke Ellington as it does the lively rhythms of Darius Milhaud. In 2017, Chris created his own chamber project *Miniatures and Improvisations*, putting together concerts that featured a broad program of short pieces for chamber trio, each work immediately followed by the musical response of an improvising trio, exploring the dialogue between the written and the unknown. Chris was awarded a Dutch grant for composition in 2010 to compose music for a children's story (The Lamplighter) and has been nominated three times for the Charles Ives Arts and Letters award. Support the show