Christopher Mann

Christopher or Chris Mann may refer to:

Chris Mann (poet)

Christopher Michael Zithulele Mann (born 1948 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa) is a South African poet.

Biography

Chris Mann was born in Port Elizabeth in 1948 and went to school in Cape Town. He studied English and Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand, and went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he was awarded an MA in English Language and Literature. He also studied African Oral Literature at the School of Oriental and African Languages in London. From 1977 to 1980 he held a lecturer post in the English Department at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. From 1980 to 1995 he worked with an NGO, The Valley Trust after which he returned to Rhodes University where he is presently a professor of poetry with the Institute for the Study of English in Africa. He is founder and convenor of Wordfest, a national multilingual festival of South African languages and literature with a developmental emphasis. A native English speaker, Mann is also conversant in Afrikaans, isiZulu and isiXhosa. He performs his work at festivals, schools, churches, universities and conferences in South Africa. He is married to artist Julia Skeen.

Chris Mann (composer)

Chris Mann (born 1949) is an Australian-American composer, poet and performer specializing in the emerging field of compositional linguistics, coined by Kenneth Gaburo and described by Mann as "the mechanism whereby you understand what I'm thinking better than I do". He is currently based in New York City.

Mann studied Chinese and linguistics at the University of Melbourne, and his interest in language, systems, and philosophy is evident in his work. Mann founded the New Music Centre in 1972 and taught at the State College of Victoria in the mid-1970s. He then left teaching to work on research projects involving cultural ideas of information theory and has been recognized by UNESCO for his work in that field.

Mann moved to New York in the 1980s and was an associate of American composers John Cage and Kenneth Gaburo. He has performed text in collaboration with artists such as Thomas Buckner, David Dunn, Annea Lockwood, Larry Polansky, and Robert Rauschenberg.

Mann has recorded with the ensemble Machine For Making Sense with Amanda Stewart and others, Chris Mann and the Impediments (with two backup singers and Mann reading a text simultaneously while only being able to hear one another), and Chris Mann and The Use. His piece The Plato Songs, a collaboration with Holland Hopson and R. Luke DuBois, features realtime spectral analysis and parsing of the voice into multiple channels based on phonemes. Mann has also participated in the 60x60 project.

Roads (Chris Mann album)

Roads is the debut studio album by American recording artist Chris Mann, released on October 30, 2012, by Universal Republic. Mann participated in the season two of the singing reality show The Voice, ultimately placing fourth, but being the first of the second season to release an album. The album was produced by Keith Thomas, Marco Marinangeli, Marius de Vries, Walter Afanasieff and others.

"Roads" is a vocal pop, classical crossover and traditional pop album, with covers from Lady Antebellum, Damien Rice, Coldplay and Frank Sinatra, as well as new songs. It also features classic covers, such as "Always on My Mind" and "Ave Maria". The album also features vocals from his coach on The Voice, the American recording artist Christina Aguilera.

Background

A classically trained singer, Chris Mann came to the public's attention while appearing as a contestant on the second season of NBC's singing reality show The Voice in 2012. However, Mann have already released 2 self-titled extended plays, the first being in 2009 and the second in 2011. While auditioning for The Voice, Mann was initially chosen by judges Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green after singing Andrea Bocelli's "Because We Believe (Ama Credi E Vai)". He chose to be part of Team Christina Aguilera, on whose team he had hoped to be selected from the start. Mann was ultimately placed fourth, behind winner Jermaine Paul, runner-up Juliet Simms, and third-place finisher Tony Lucca. However, it was enough to give him a ready fan base and a recording contract with Universal Republic, ultimately releasing his debut solo album, Roads.

Chris Mann (singer)

Christopher Michael "Chris" Mann (born May 5, 1982) is a classically trained American singer-songwriter from Wichita, Kansas.

He came in fourth on the second season of NBC's television singing competition The Voice in 2012. Mann came in first on Team Christina Aguilera and represented her in the final round.

He is currently starring in The Phantom of the Opera as the "Phantom" in the show's North American tour.

Music career

Early life

After graduating in 2000 from Wichita Southeast High School in Wichita, Kansas, Mann attended Vanderbilt University. He graduated from Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music in 2004, with a degree in vocal performance. Mann was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity where his pledge name was Buttercup.

After graduation, Mann was cast in an Italian opera in Europe. After moving to Los Angeles, he obtained numerous studio and group singing gigs, including Dalton Academy "Warbler #6" on an episode of Glee, the Sundance Film Festival, and the AFI Life Achievement Award 2010.