Chris Opperman is an award-winning composer who has recently emerged into the mainstream. Opperman is known mostly for his work orchestrating the music of guitar heroes Steve Vai

Steve Vai

Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....

 and Mike Keneally

Mike Keneally

Michael Joseph Keneally is an American guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and composer. Allmusic says: "With his wide-ranging talents and ability to be creative in almost any musical situation, Keneally is the leading progressive rock genius of the post-Zappa era."Born on Long Island, New York, he...

 for their respective performances with Holland's Metropole Orkest

Metropole Orchestra

The Metropole Orchestra is a jazz and pop orchestra based in the Netherlands, and is the largest full time ensemble of its kind in the world. A hybrid orchestra, it is a combination of jazz big band and symphony orchestra...

. Opperman also performed on Steve Vai's first round of orchestral concerts and the song "Lotus Feet" was nominated for the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance

Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...

. Also, the song The Attitude Song

The Attitude Song

The Attitude Song is the sixth song of guitarist Steve Vai's debut solo album Flex-Able which was released in 1984. One of Vai's most live performed songs, it appears on the G3: Live in Concert DVD, on the Live at Astoria DVD , and in orchestral form with the Netherlands Metropole Orchestra on...

 from Vai's Sound Theories Vol. I & II album was nominated for the 2008 Grammy Award

50th Grammy Awards

The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, on February 10, 2008. Kanye West received the most nominations, with eight. Amy Winehouse was the big winner, winning a total of five awards. Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters won Album of the Year,...

 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance

Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...

.

However, Opperman has several albums of his own music which is essentially a cross between 90s alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 and his favorite 20th-century composers (Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...

, Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

, Webern

Anton Webern

Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...

, and Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

). His main instrument is the piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

. However, he has also been known to play the trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 and the guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 on occasion, and will rarely sing.
Opperman was born in Clifton, New Jersey

Clifton, New Jersey

Clifton is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 84,136. The 2010 population represented an increase of 5,464 residents from its population of 78,672 in the 2000 Census, making it the state's 11th largest...

. He lived in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 from 2000–2008 and moved back to his hometown where he earned a Master's Degree in Music Theory/Composition from Montclair State University

Montclair State University

Montclair State University is a public research university located in the Upper Montclair section of Montclair, the Great Notch area of Little Falls, and Clifton, New Jersey. As of October 2009, there were 18,171 total enrolled students: 14,139 undergraduate students and 4,032 graduate students...

 in May, 2010.

Solo albums

1. Oppy Music, Vol. I: Purple, Crayon
   Oppy Music, Vol. I: Purple, Crayon
   Oppy Music, Vol. I: Purple, Crayon is the Debut Album by Chris Opperman and the Random Factor"Can you imagine a silken scarf, studded with turquoise Necco wafers? Opperman's music starts on the 'and of 2.' If you think you understand it, you're wrong...
   
    (1998)
2. Klavierstucke (2001)
3. Concepts of Non-linear Time (2004)
4. Beyond the Foggy Highway (2005)
5. The Lionheart (2010)
6. Aphrodite Nights - Single (2011)

With Steve Vai

1. Real Illusions: Reflections
   Real Illusions: Reflections
   Real Illusions: Reflections is the first studio album since Steve Vai's 1999 studio release The Ultra Zone. The album was released on February 22, 2005...
   
    (2005)
2. Sound Theories Vol. I & II (2007)

With Mike Keneally

1. Dancing (2000)
2. Dancing With Myself (2000)
3. The Universe Will Provide (2004)
4. Parallel Univers] (2004)
5. Guitar Therapy Live (2006)
6. Wine and Pickles (2008)

Album Reviews

[ Klavierstücke]

[ Concepts of Non-Linear Time]

[ Beyond the Foggy Highway]