Chris Wilson

Biography

Dr. Chris Wilson has worked as a composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, teacher, lecturer, writer and researcher. His roster of past and present musical projects includes calypso band Shak Shak, Caribbean jazz group The Liquidaires, country band The Jeremiahs, klezmer band Hu-Tsa-Tsa, and parade band The Arythmix. He plays piano, accordion, saxophone, clarinet, guitar, ukulele and bass guitar. He maintains active songwriting and private teaching practices, and also leads three ukulele groups.

Chris’ professional activities include being a music director for both Shadowland Theatre and Clay and Paper Theatre. In this capacity he has worked with communities on Toronto Island and around Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto’s west end, and in the Ontario towns Sarnia, Port Dover, St. Williams, Collingwood and Kingston, and the First nations communities of Wikiwemikong, Kettle Point, and Aamjiwnaang,

Chris’ doctorate dissertation (PhD ethnomusicology) focuses on songwriters in Nashville, Tennessee. His academic work also includes a Masters thesis that examines the steelband scene in Toronto and the local steelband Silhouettes. He has published a book chapter called “Gender and the Nashville Songwriter: Three Songs by Victoria Banks” in Boy Named Sue Too: More Essays on Gender and Country Music (University of Mississippi Press, 2015).

Chris’ teaching practice combines music and community engagement, and he seeks out situations in which music enriches the lives of others and promotes meaningful and positive interactions. He is also very happy to be teaching at Toronto Metropolitan University.