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Collages of tropes, contrapuntal traditions, and free improvisations, music by Ryan Chase (b. 1987) has been described as "the stuff of memory" (The Herald-Times) and “whirlwind… deftly explored contrasts of mood, from bombastic to introverted.” (The New York Times). Frequently inspired by natural phenomena and humankind’s relationship with media and technology, his pieces conjure extra-musical narratives driven by the conflict between music’s abstraction and its capacity for association. “His pieces accept multiple possibilities offered by both the past and the future: a healthy, unembarrassed richness of musical enthusiasms” (The American Academy of Arts and Letters).

From 1991 to 1995, Ryan studied piano with Takano Nakamura. Lessons interrupted, he continued practicing independently in New York’s Capital Region. In 2004, he accompanied productions of A Fine and Private Place, The Cradle Will Rock, and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown as a solo performer. He was the Musical Director of Siena College’s Colonie Youth Theatre from 2005.to 2007.

In 2004, Ryan enrolled at Mannes College of Music, studying composition with Keith Fitch. While in Manhattan, he worked as a session and “911” keyboardist. He was a roster pianist for Little Maestros from 2005 to 2008 and regularly performed with many of New York City’s top children’s songwriters and performers around the greater metropolitan area. From 2006 to 2008, he performed with The Chelsea Symphony and composed irreverent mirage for their inaugural season. In 2006 and 2007, he studied with David Tcimpidis, George Tsontakis, and Chen Yi at the California Summer Music Festival.

In 2008, he graduated with Mannes’s top honors in composition (The Bohuslav Martinú Award), theory (The Felix Salzer Techniques of Music Award), and scholarship (The Theodore Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award). He enrolled at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, studying composition with Gabriela Ortiz, Claude Baker, David Dzubay, and Don Freund. He studied computer music with Jeffrey Hass, John Gibson, and Alicyn Warren. He studied conducting with Thomas Baldner and David Dzubay.

He has worked with Alarm Will Sound, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, Boston New Music Initiative, the Chelsea Symphony, Collage New Music, Contemporaneous, FLUX Quartet, soprano Ariadne Greif, The Happenstancers, the Mexico City Woodwind Quintet, Musica Nova, the Society for New Music, and the Texas State University Wind Symphony. His scoring credits for public radio and television include Peggy’s Poetry and Zarg (WTIU-PBS), The Ernie Pyle Experiment (WFIU-NPR), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (WFIU-NPR), and The Watcher in the Woods (WFIU-NPR).

His music has been presented at Tanglewood, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the National Audio Theater’s Hear Now Audio Fiction and Arts Festival, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Fordham University’s Poets Out Loud Festival, the Resonant Bodies Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the California Summer Music Festival, PBS, and NPR. Accolades for his work include a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fromm Commission from the Harvard Fromm Music Foundation, an Emmy® nomination, two consecutive BMI Student Composer Awards (including 2011’s William Schuman Prize for Most Outstanding Entry), two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the Audience Choice Award from the American Composers Orchestra Underwood Readings, the Undergraduate Scholar Award from the Presser Foundation, the Northridge Composition Prize, the Brian M. Israel Prize from the Society for New Music, and the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer's Award.

He currently serves on the faculty of �Ա���Ƶ as Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Digital Experimental Music Studio (DEX). View and purchase scores at (ASCAP).