He is a percussionist who graduated from Florida State University and Temple University and was the first recipient of Aspen Music Festivals’s Charles Owen Memorial Fellowship. He was also a Tanglewood Institute Fellow and a National Repertory Orchestra invitee.
He went on to perform and record with the Atlanta Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the New Orleans Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. He was section percussionist with the Houston Symphony and was a substitute musician, before becoming a full member, of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2003 where he holds the post of Principal Percussion.
He and the orchestra’s Principal Timpani, Don Liuzzi, were co-soloists with Emanuel Ax in a performance of “Two Pianos and Percussion” by Bela Bartok in 2008. In 2017 he and the marimbaist She-e Wu performed the premiere of “Duo Concertante for Vibraphone and Marimba” which he arranged from three pieces by Pat Metheny.
As a chamber musician he has participated in many music festivals and in the Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Music Series. He has performed with ensembles that include the Atmos Percussion Ensemble, the Network for New Music and given recitals at Temple University and Tulane University.
Recordings he has performed on include Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”/Dumka by The Philadelphia Orchestra and Zones by POPG.
In the field of musical education he was on the faculty of Rutger’s University from 2004 to 2008 followed by the Curtis Institute of Music from 2008 to 2009. He went on to join Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance faculty as a graduate percussion program teacher in 2010 and has conducted the PBS broadcast production All-Star Orchestra in 2012, 2014 and 2016. He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan, a faculty member of the Philadelphia International Music Festival and given numerous master classes.
Sources:
- https://www.philorch.org/your-philorch/meet-your-orchestra/musicians/christopher-deviney/
- https://www.innovativepercussion.com/artists/chris_deviney
- https://boyer.temple.edu/about/faculty-staff/christopher-deviney-440
- https://www.wrti.org/arts-desk/2021-07-27/how-pat-methenys-guitar-music-became-a-percussion-concerto-for-the-philadelphia-orchestra
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/4625578-Christopher-Deviney
- https://philadelphiamusicfestival.org/our-faculty/percussion/faculty-christopher-deviney-percussion/deviney/