Dr. Chris Weldon is a pianist, teacher, chamber musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer.
His piano students have won top prizes in the Schubert Club, Thursday Musical, MMTA Young Artist, MTNA Minnesota and Indiana State Competitions, Saint Paul Piano Teacher’s Association Concerto Competition, and the St. Cloud Symphony Concerto Competition.
He has performed in prestigious venues worldwide including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Phillips Collection, HOAM Art Hall and the Ordway Center. He was a featured soloist at the International Chopin, Verbier, and Aspen music festivals, has performed concertos with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Brno Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen Concert Orchestra, and the symphonies of Juilliard, Evanston, and St. Cloud. He has performed chamber music with members of the Los Angeles and Buffalo Philharmonics, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the symphonies of Pittsburgh and San Francisco. He also appeared as a soloist on WNYC's "The Listening Room," and on WQXR's “Young Artists Showcase.”
Dr. Weldon has taught master classes at Washington State University, San Jose State University, Irvine Valley College, the Wirth Center for the Performing Arts, and the Orange County High School for the Arts, and regularly served as a juror for the Music Teachers Association of California. He was the inaugural director of Junior Chamber Music: Los Angeles, a program that provides professional chamber music coaching to young ensembles.
He completed his BM, MM and DMA at The Juilliard School where he took first prizes in both Juilliard’s concerto and Gina Bachauer Piano Competitions as a student of Abbey Simon. His primary teacher was Dr. Paul Wirth, founder of the Wirth Center for the Performing Arts.
Dr. Weldon served as the Director of Worship at Pacific Crossroads Church in Los Angeles from 2007-2019. There, he produced weekly services for over 2,000 people in pop, gospel, Americana, classical, and contemporary styles of music. He also oversaw the production of two music albums, to which he contributed original music and arrangements. He continues to write, record and produce new music.
Dr. Weldon is the artistic director of the Wirth Center for the Performing Arts, a non-profit performing arts school dedicated to inspiring artistic excellence and personal growth in young performers. In 2021, he also joined the music faculty as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Weldon loves engaging people through music and believes strongly in the healing power of the performing arts for individuals and communities.