“I think laughter is preferable to tears.” - John Cage

Dr. Kristian Twombly is an experimental composer, musician, and educator. Currently Professor of Music at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, he also serves as Department Chair and Faculty Fellow for Strategic Planning for the University. He earned the Bachelor of Music in Music Composition and the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Maryland, where he studied with Thomas DeLio.

Twombly’s music has been performed in a variety of venues, from IRCAM in Paris to an installation in an art gallery in Bali, Indonesia. An avid promoter of experimental improvisation and works utilizing found objects, he counts FLUXUS and the New York School as important influences.

As a student, he realized that the only way that he was going to hear much of the music that he read about was to perform it himself. Along with his fellow graduate students, he arranged a performance of FLUXUS works. This performance led to the formation of the Bay Players Experimental Music Collective, the Interplait Duo with soprano Stacey Mastrian, When Morty Met John, a trio with Mastrian and composer Stephen Lilly, and No Steve, a loose collective that includes composer Michael Boyd and others.

Twombly’s interests outside music include art, cooking, and following auto racing.