I enjoy playing, writing, and listening to music.
I play saxophone (mainly) and bassoon (a little). Although I used to play jazz, these days I mostly find myself playing string parts in classical chamber music (when I play at all). See below for some recordings I made both by myself and with my wife, Emma, who plays cello (and viola and violin). In addition to these normal instruments, Emma and I received a build-your-own-crumhorn kit as a wedding gift, and after building our very own crumhorn (seen here), we have occasionally played it with some of our friends who also enjoy Baroque and Renaissance music.
Young At Heart
Composed by Richards/Leigh
Performed by Chris Berlind (soprano sax)
Excerpt from String Quartet No. 13 (Op. 130) Movement 4
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
Performed by Chris Berlind (soprano sax, alto sax, bassoon)
Duet WoO 27 No. 1
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
Performed by Chris Berlind (soprano sax) and Emma Cohen (cello)
Mov. 1 Allegro commodo
Mov. 2 Larghetto sostenuto
Mov. 1 Rondo allegretto
I used to write and arrange music when I was in high school in college, but I haven't done as much recently. Below are a few highlights: jazzy arrangements of Greensleeves (in 7/8 time) and Winter Wonderland for two saxes (which were performed by David Lindsay and I in high school) and a French horn sonata I wrote as the final project of my college music theory class (this one was performed by my friend Ben Faber on horn and music professor Tom Neenan on piano).
Greensleeves
Traditional
Arranged by Chris Berlind, December 2006
Winter Wonderland
Composed by Bernard/Smith
Arranged by Chris Berlind, December 2006
Sonata for Piano and Horn
Composed by Chris Berlind, May 2009
I listen to music of all kinds, but my favorite genres are jazz and progressive rock. My "COVID project" in 2020 was to research and organize a massive jazz playlist containing all of the classic small group jazz recordings from the 1920s (starting with Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman) to 1960s (including Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus, to name a few). Some of these artists and albums were already familiar to me, but many of them I listened to for the first time while doing the research. The playlist is in chronological order by recording date and provides a fascinating glimpse into how jazz music changed over time.
I later made a similar playlist for the classic prog albums of the late 1960s through early 1980s, although some of my favorites are too obscure to be found on Spotify.
Emma and I have also spent some time writing computer programs that automatically compose music. Our computer music system is pretty basic at the moment, but I would love to get back to further developing it when I find the time. Here are some selected sample outputs we generated back in 2009.
Sample 1
Composed by Computer, November 2009
Sample 2
Composed by Computer, November 2009
Sample 3
Composed by Computer, November 2009
Sample 4
Composed by Computer, November 2009
I also play sports. Some past highlights include completing 9 triathlons between the ages of 10 and 16, playing a season of NCAA basketball for Caltech, and completing 5k and 10k open water swims in the summer of 2013. For the past 5 years I've been playing competitive tennis, and this past year I picked up road biking and started competing in triathlons again. All my triathlon training is visible on my Strava profile.