Christian Mason was born in London in 1984.  He defines composition as “searching in sound for fleeting solidifications of intangible experiences”, and adds to this ambitious project the mastering of an extraordinary and rare instrument, the theremin. 

His music has been described variously as “a very different world, gentle and subtly coloured... intriguingly ambiguous in a way that made me want to hear it again, immediately” (Ivan Hewitt, Telegraph) and “energised, bracing, craggy and brilliant” (Colin Anderson, Classicalsource). His former teacher and composer Nicola LeFanu portrayed Christian in New Notes as one of the “most strikingly original” composers of his generation. Alongside pursuing a Ph.D at Kings College London with George Benjamin, Christian works as composition assistant to Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and 'composer mentor' for the LSO Panufnik Young Composers Project. He previously read music at the University of York and has studied composition with Sinan Savaskan, Nicola LeFanu, Thomas Simaku, Brian Ferneyhough and Julian Anderson. Christian Mason has participated in summer courses such as the Stockhausen Courses, Dartington, Royaumont Voix Nouvelles 2007, Acanthes 2008 and Takefu nternational Festival 2008. He has also collaborated with choreographers on the Transforme project at Royaumont (2008-09) and with performance artist Barbara Keal on Songs for the Last Slam Door Train (2006), for 20 amateur singers on a train. From 2005-2008 he was shortlisted by the Society for the Promotion of New Music and in 2009 he was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize and nominated for the British Composer Awards, chamber category.
Christian’s music has been commissioned and/or performed by Midori, Mieko Kanno, Elysian Quartet, Okeanos Plus, Ensemble Cairn, Next Mushroom Promotion, London Sinfonietta, LSO, Opera North Orchestra, and BBC Philharmonic under such conductors as Elgar Howarth, Francois-Xavier Roth and James MacMillan. In September 2009 In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced, written for London Sinfonietta's 40th Birthday Concert, was released on their 'Jerwood Series'. December saw the world premier tour of Noctilucence, performed by the Britten Sinfonia and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Most recently Looking for the Land that is Nowhere, for theremin and scordatura string octet, was given its first performance on June 29th 2010 by Lydia Kavina and members of the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the 'Music of Today' series.  In 2011, Christian’s next piece for violin and piano will be premiered by Carolin Widmann at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, followed by further performances at the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Hellerau in Dresden.
July 2010

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 "It says much for the 28-year-old Christian Mason that his new piece, Noctilucence, didn't suffer from comparison. He draws his title and inspiration from a mysterious cloud that hovers far above where clouds ought to be, and hence shimmers in sunlight on summer nights. That is exactly what his piece conveys. The first half is audaciously hushed - very few notes, very slow, and lots of silence suggesting the Universe beyond the clouds. Then an ecstatic dance erupts, full of rude vigour, rushing scales and shuddering rhythms. Rarely can the cliché "Every cloud has a silver lining" have been better conveyed. A work of high imagination, in every sense. Catch this fascinating programme in Birmingham Town Hall today or Norwich Assembly House tomorrow."
Times Online December 2009

"The very first sounds of the afternoon's premiere - Noctilucence by the young British composer Christian Mason - opened a door to a very different world, gentle and subtly coloured in a way the title might lead you to expect (noctilucent clouds are those rarely seen ones that glimmer high up at dusk). Then the music seemed to turn against itself, becoming sharp-edged and fierce, though the earlier mood somehow persisted alongside. It was intriguingly ambiguous in a way that made me Want to hear it again, immediately."
Telegraph.co.uk December 2009

"Over the past four decades the London Sinfonietta has had an enviable record in identifying and nurturing new talent, so although it's impossible to predict whether the likes of James Olsen and Christian Mason will ultimately make the sustained impact of a Tavener or a Birtwistle, the Sinfonietta's seal of approval gives them the best possible start. Mason (b1984) is the youngest, and his In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced belies its cumbersome title to offer a bracing exploration of a sound world which is sometimes brittle, sometimes lyrical. The spatial distribution of the players and 'the ethereal sound of 36 handkerchief-harmonicas, placed throughout the audience' go for less on disc than they do in the hall but the piece manages to be something more than the sum of its influences."
Gramophone, December 2009

"Christian Mason's In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced is scored for small ensemble, in fact three trios - each consisting of one woodwind, one percussion and one string player. The music sounds somewhat more modern but never extravagantly so, and the composer's fine ear for arresting sonorities is quite often brilliantly and tellingly displayed."
Classical Music Web, October 2009

"I have been moved by new works of Grainne Mulvey and Christian Mason - two of the most strikingly original composers of their respective generations"
Nicola LeFanu, New Notes, March 2009

"The most engaging was Christian Mason's In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced, in which the otherworldly sounds of the spheres echoed around the auditorium."
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, December 2008

"Christian Mason's In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced used spatial elements to beautifully imagined effect"
George Hall, The Guardian, December 2008

"Instead of the consoling intimacy that opens Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto the concert started by plunging into the glittering vortex of Christian Mason's Clear Night. Occasional flashes of Berg and Bartók, and quite a lot of Messiaen, light up the shimmering orchestral colours, though Mason mostly manages to forge them into a sound-world of his own. At five minutes the piece did not outstay its welcome. The challenge will be whether Mason can make his ideas work as consistently for longer." Richard Fairman, Financial Times, September 2008

"The latest (the seventeenth) of the UBS commissions proved energised and bracing, craggy and brilliant, the title of Clear Night (from David Gascoigne's poem "Tenebrae") vividly suggested in the music, the score itself being tightly organised and imaginatively orchestrated, compelling over its seven minutes and suggesting that Christian Mason (born 1984) is a composer to watch out for."
www.classicalsource.com, September 2008

"Christian Mason's Clear Night! came across as the most experimental of the three works. It is complex in texture and technique, and is cast in a single span. It uses many unusual musical effects, including deliberately wide vibrato and slow glissandos from strings and woodwinds, as well as sudden accents cutting across the texture. Mason noted that he was trying to convey something of the exhilaration of the clear night sky, punctuated by points of light from bright stars. The dense textures made this perhaps the hardest work to grasp, but maybe also the one which would repay the most from additional hearings."
Dominic Nudd, www.classicalsource.com, July 2007

"Christian Mason succeeded well in Under Heaven: sometimes..., elucidating relationships and connections between the instruments which formed his rich tapestry."
Musical Pointers, July 2006

"The scores came from a wide spectrum of ages... with a young York University student, Christian Mason, only just emerging from his teenage years, providing a shimmering Aspects of Radiance."
Yorkshire Post, May 2005

"Christian Mason's Aspects of Radiance had a timeless translucence, slithering bluesily towards gentle disintegration. A young talent, and one to watch."
York Evening Press, May 2005