Chris van Voorst van Beest
is a 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 performed and/or recorded with artists as diverse as Frank Kimbrough, Robert Glasper, Gabriel Kahane, and George Garzone. Sought after in a variety of musical settings, Chris is a member of a number of original music projects including The Danny Fox Trio and Garage Ellington, plays for immersive theater (Sleep No More), and collaborates with multi-media artists, most recently with choreographer Kelly Ashton Todd with whom he wrote and performed incidental music for the 45 minute dance piece 'Nest'.
Chris also writes contemporary classical music, most recently finishing his first work for orchestra 'Short Story'. The founder of his own chamber ensemble, Chris's latest concert, 'Miniatures and Improvisations', features a broad program of short pieces for trio, each piece immediately followed by an improvised response, exploring the dialogue between improvisation and composition. Chris was awarded a Dutch grant for composition in 2010 to compose music for the children's book 'The Lamplighter' and has been nominated three times for the Charles Ives Arts and Letters award.