CHRIS KAPICA is a composer, performer, and educator who straddles the line between the classical and popular music worlds.
Originally from Carmel, NY, he studied composition at The Juilliard School, where he earned Bachelor of Music (2008) and Master of Music (2009) degrees as a student of Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Christopher Rouse. Chris discovered a passion for teaching as an ear training instructor for Juilliard’s college and pre-college programs from 2007 to 2010.
Since then, Chris has written works for orchestra, dance, theater, television, and advertising and toured the country as a bassist. His music has appeared in Cirque du Soleil, the TV network VICELAND, the New York Philharmonic’s inaugural Biennial Festival, Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Concert Series, and the Albany Symphony’s American Music Festival. Steve Smith of the New York Times wrote that Chris’s musical offerings in Juice Box Hero, his 2010 oratorio about the last day of kindergarten, were “deployed with sure instincts and dramatic flair.” Chris also received a 2009 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for his choreographed work for mixed ensemble, Flak, for which he played electric guitar.
Chris is now releasing cinematic industrial music under the pseudonym FauxFriend, now available on all platforms.
Chris has performed with artists such as Jonathan Batiste and in groups who have opened for acts like the Allman Brothers Band, Neil Young, Heart, the Black Keys, the Neville Brothers, McCoy Tyner, the Raconteurs, Buddy Guy, and Esperanza Spalding.
As the Dean and Chief Academic Officer of California College of Music in Pasadena, Chris aims to equip aspiring artists with the musicianship skills, expressive tools, technological fluency, and business savvy necessary to thrive in the ever-changing music industry. His first book, Chordcraft: A Workbook of Popular Music Harmony, is one of CCM’s required music theory texts.
Chris resides in Los Angeles with his wife Nina, cat Cécile, and diverse collection of colorful socks.