Christopher De Groot : Member Profile : Music Arrangers' Guild of Australia

Christopher de Groot holds a Bachelors degree with Honours majoring in composition from the West Australian Academy Of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Christopher’s eclectic tastes have seen him write music for a wide variety of ensembles as well as many short films. In 2007 he was invited to be Composer In Residence at WAAPA and during his tenure wrote several new works, gave a number of lectures on his honours research and scored two student films – one of which (Party For One) received the Best Experimental Sound Track Composer award at the 2007 Perth International Film Festival.

Having always considered instrumental timbre and texture a crucial element in his writing, de Groot’s recent music has focused on the use of manipulated found sounds, electronics and traditional instrumentation to create brooding, often evocative musical atmospheres that blur the distinction between sound art and music. Christopher is currently studying a Masters degree in film music and is a part-time staff member at WAAPA’s composition department and was recently awarded the Tura New Music Commissioning Prize for the most outstanding final year WAAPA composition graduate.