Chris Pilsner

• Born: 1986

Composer and conductor Chris Pilsner is becoming an established name in the contemporary classical world. His music for orchestra, wind ensemble and chamber ensembles has been acclaimed by audiences, performers and conductors worldwide and receives hundreds of performances every year. Recordings of these works can be found throughout YouTube, garnering over 200,000 views.

In the concert hall, Pilsner’s music has been performed by groups as diverse as professional ensembles, universities, high schools, all-state/honor ensembles, and even in Carnegie Hall. He has also been commissioned by/recorded with professional orchestras across the world including the Vienna Synchron Stage Orchestra, Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Session Orchestra and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. In 2019, he traveled to Vienna to conduct the Vienna Synchron Stage Orchestra in a recording of all his works for string orchestra, which were released on his EP album Elements in August of 2019. Recently, he returned to Vienna to record his works for wind ensemble for a new album due in 2023.

Pilsner’s music can also be heard in the world of film, where he most recently composed the score to the feature length documentary Finding Daylight in 2021. He was also the winner of the Film Scoring Academy of Europe’s Call for Scores Award in 2020.

As a conductor, Pilsner served as the Director of Orchestras at Windsor High School in Colorado 2014–19. Now a full-time composer and conductor, he regularly appears as a guest conductor/clinician with schools, honor bands/orchestras and other ensembles across the nation. Because of his experience as a teacher, Pilsner is an avid supporter of music education and strives to keep creating new and original works for young individuals across the world.

Pilsner holds a Master of Music degree in Composition from Central Michigan University, where he studied with renowned composer David Gillingham. He also holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Northern Colorado in Music Composition and Music Education.

Pilsner is a member of ASCAP and proudly self-publishes through his publishing company Zicato Music.

Snow Falling in Autumn

• Composed: 2019
  
• Duration: approx. 9 minutes

From 2014 to 2019, I had the privilege and honor to be the director of orchestras at Windsor High School in Windsor, Colorado. It was during these years that I met some of the most incredible young people I have ever met, and I spent my days constantly amazed at how enthusiastic, diligent and supportive they could be, not only of themselves, but each other.

In March of 2019, I announced to my students that I was going to be “retiring” from teaching and moving on to a full-time career as a composer. It was, by far, the hardest conversation I’ve had with anyone in my life, and it devastated me to say the words. But no words could represent my love and respect for them. So I decided to express it in music instead.

Snow Falling in Autumn represents the last work in a series of pieces I wrote for my students during my time teaching at Windsor. It is a culmination of emotions that span from pride in their accomplishments to saying goodbye to relationships I will cherish for the rest of my days.

The title comes from my love for the state of Colorado and the first snowfall in autumn that covers a color-changing canvas with a gentle white. It is unabashedly pastoral and was an opportunity to embrace my inner Vaughan Williams and Elgar to create something that not only gives the audience a view of the gorgeous landscape, but also is filled with hope, sadness and all things that make us human.

It is forever dedicated to my incredible students, who will be in my fondest memories for eternity.