Christopher Melen

Dr Christopher Melen is a Research Assistant working on the three-year, AHRC-funded project 'John Cage and the Concert for Piano and Orchestra'. Joining in 2015, his main role within the project is the development of an interactive website, but also covers collation and analysis of the work’s materials. Christopher studied music at Cardiff University, being awarded a BMus (1st class) in 2001, then continued at Cardiff with a PhD in Composition, under the supervision of distinguished composer Anthony Powers. During this time he also worked as an Associate Lecturer in the department, with responsibilities covering harmony, counterpoint and composition. He continues to compose, and his music has been performed both in the UK and abroad. He currently works mainly in the instrumental field, but has also written works involving electronics, and music for amateurs. He has a long-standing interest in computer-aided composition, and has used IRCAM's OpenMusic computer-aided composition environment extensively. Since leaving Cardiff in 2006 Christopher worked mainly as a programmer and web developer, working most recently for the award-winning US text analytics company Synapsify.