Christian Frederickson

Christian Frederickson is a violist, composer, and sound designer who specializes in live music performance for theater and dance. He has worked at a long list of theaters in New York City, notably the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Classic Stage Company, La MaMa, and Playwright's Horizons as well as regional theaters around the U.S. He teaches design at MIT.

He was a founding member of the instrumental band Rachel's, who released 6 albums between 1995 and 2003. An ensemble of viola, cello, piano, guitar, drums, and percussion was surrounded by other orchestral instruments, tape manipulation, cinematic sound design, found sounds, and electronic elements. As a solo artist, Frederickson has released 7 albums since 2011: Bastard, Amidst, and Custodians of Beauty are scores for contemporary dance; Death Metal Angola was written for a documentary about the rock scene in Angola; Teratogeny, The Starving Season, and Islands of Light are collections of music from various projects.

Frederickson holds a BM in performance from The Peabody Conservatory and a MM from The Juilliard School. From 2000 to 2004 he was the viola instructor at the University of Louisville, also teaching chamber music and orchestral playing.