Charis Bean Duke – Composer/Arranger

Charis Bean Duke

Charis is a composer, pianist, and oboist, holding degrees in composition from Brigham Young University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She enjoys all types of music, particularly anything avant garde. Her muses include Shostakovich, George Crumb, Vaughan Williams, and Bach.

Each Christmas Charis and her husband David compose a new carol together for their family Christmas card. They have writtentwenty-one, four of which have received First Place in the International Christmas Carol and Chanukah Song Writing Competition sponsored by the Amadeus Choir of Toronto.

When not busy with new music, Charis can be found experimenting wildly in the kitchen (with varying degrees of success) for her husband and three children, trying in vain to grown tomatoes organically, and playing in the pits for various Philadelphia area theaters.