Christopher Gravis

conductor

The official website for Christopher Gravis, conductor.

St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

Christopher Gravis is an American choral and orchestral conductor, composer, and professor. Dr. Gravis serves as the Canon for Music & Cathedral Arts at St. John’s Cathedral (Anglican/Episcopal) in Los Angeles, and Associate Professor & Director of Choral Activities at California State University Los Angeles. He has led the professional ensemble Clarion Singers in residence at Canterbury Cathedral, and regularly guest conducts the LA Schola.  For seven years he served as Director of Music at St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church, where he led the choir in residence at St. Paul’s Cathedral – London.  Internationally, Christopher has guest-conducted the Choir of Queens’ College Cambridge, the Galway City Chamber Singers in Ireland, and led conducting workshops at Dublin City University.

He is considered a specialist in the area of English choral-orchestral masterworks, and of Anglican liturgical music.  Dr. Gravis published a dissertation on The Development of Anglican Chant in Twentieth-Century.  Alongside a robust liturgical music season at St. John’s Cathedral, Dr. Gravis conducts regular services of Choral Evensong, Compline, and is internationally sought after as a guest conductor and clinician.

Active as both a choral and orchestral conductor, Gravis made his debut with the San Diego Symphony in 2014, and recently finished several seasons leading the acclaimed Orange Coast College Symphony.  Dr. Gravis is also a composer of choral and liturgical music.  His setting of the Preces & Responses was premiered at Canterbury Cathedral in 2016, and his setting of Adam lay ybounden was commissioned for St. John’s Cathedral’s annual Advent Carol Service.

A native of Southern California, he earned degrees in music from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, California State University Fullerton, and the University of Redlands.