Christopher Norton (born June 22, 1953) is a British pianist and composer of Jazz music. His pieces are standard in piano learning repitoire, especially the ABRSM piano grades.

Education

Norton was born in New Zealand. He worked as a composer-in-schools for a year after finishing his studies at the University of Otago, then freelanced as a composer, arranger and pianist. He moved to the UK in 1977 on a New Zealand Government Scholarship. He studied at York University, taught by Wilfred Meyers and David Blake.

Career

His earliest publications were with Universal Edition in London, and included ''Carol Jazz'' — improvisations on Christmas tunes — and ''Sing'n'Swing'', for choir, piano and percussion.

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments. Formed in 1930 throu ...

signed Norton in 1983, and the first of the Microjazz series appeared, an educational music series that has expanded over 30 years to include music for all of the major instruments with piano, ensemble books, backing tracks and midi-file backings. it ranked as the biggest selling music series for Boosey & Hawkes, with well over a million sales to that date. Boosey & Hawkes claims that it is "one of the most widely used educational series ever published." Norton's other publications with Boosey & Hawkes include the ''Essential Guides'' to Pop, Latin and Jazz Styles, the Rock, Country, Latin and Jazz ''Preludes'' series, and the ''Christopher Norton Concert Collections''. Other recently published works include a CD-ROM, ''So You Wanna Be a Pop Star'', tutors for electronic keyboard and guitar, and a volume in Boosey & Hawkes' ''Buy A Band'' range. In 2006, Norton gave a microjazz workshop at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin; he has also held workshops in Australia and New Zealand, Canada and the United States, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Malaysia, and Singapore. In 2007, Frederick Harris Music published ''Christopher Norton Connections for Piano'', a collection of 180 new, original piano pieces in popular styles. The pieces are divided into graded books that correspond to respective grade of other Frederick Harris Music publications, such as Celebration Series. According to the official website, this series is "ideal for students and teachers looking for a sound pedagogical supplement or alternative to the study of classical piano literature." Norton has made

production music Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries. Background ...

albums for KPM and

Cavendish Music Cavendish may refer to: People * The House of Cavendish, a British aristocratic family * Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), British poet, philosopher, and scientist * Cavendish (author) (1831–1899), pen name of Henry Jones, English auth ...

. A recent venture with the

Novus Via Music Group Novus ("new" in Latin) may refer to: Companies * Novus Biologicals, a biotech company based in Littleton, Colorado, US * Novus Entertainment, a Canadian telecommunications company * Novus International, an animal health and nutrition company * Nov ...

involves the creation of a piano series for North American students that offers traditional skills in the context of popular styles.

References

External links

*
Official publisher's webpage

Official Microjazz webpage
published by

Novus Via Music Group

Christopher Norton Connections for Piano
published by

Frederick Harris Music The Frederick Harris Music Co., Limited (Frederick Harris Music) is a music publishing firm in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1904. The company claims to be the oldest music publishing company in Canada, and has supported the work of composers ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Christopher 1953 births Living people British composers New Zealand composers Male composers University of Otago alumni