Chris Granner
president and founder

Exposed to Bach, Beethoven and Chopin from birth by his organist/pianist father, Chris was singing 3-part harmony with his parents at age 2 (so says his mom anyway). He studied composition and electronic/computer music with Ben Johnston, Herbert Brun, Sal Martirano & Scott Wyatt at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, completing a B.M. and an M.F.A. in music composition. Chris’s interest in computer music led him to the Northwestern University computer music lab, where he heard that Williams Electronics was searching for its first full-time composer. He took the position, and over a period of 18 years developed a presence as one of the leading composers in the pinball & coin-op video game industry. Since leaving Williams/Bally/Midway to create CGmusic, Chris has become the leading composer in pinball today, and is consistently sought to compose music and design soundtracks for coin-op and console games, television advertising spots and other interactive media. Recently he designed the soundtrack and directed voiceover asset creation for the X-Box title Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus, and composed music and post-produced audio for the cut-scenes for that Studio Gigante / Microsoft title. Although fascinated by all types of music and known for his ability to bestow the “cg touch” on any musical style, Chris especially enjoys all styles of classical music from Gregorian Chant to John Cage, as well as both types of music – country/western AND bluegrass.

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Matt Grimm
Sound Designer/Engineer

Matt has been active for many years in the Chicago hip-hop scene with his production company Grimmace Productions. Recently he produced a track on "The Chicago Project" for Gravel Records, with the Vinyl Addicts. He has also engineered with Verbal Kent, Rusty Chainz, Longshot, and Diverse among others. Matt was an assistant engineer at Studiomedia Recording working on various sound design projects for nearly a year while completing his undergraduate studies at Columbia College. He then took on an intern position at the prestigious Post Effects in the Rivernorth area of downtown Chicago. Since then Matt has contributed significantly to the cgmusic team as a sound designer with an innate talent for crafting graceful, compelling gestures.

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John had his compositional debut at the age of 16 when his piece, “Full Fathom Five” was performed at a concert for young composers with the Zeitgeist New Music Ensemble at the MacPhail Center for the Arts in Minneapolis. He went on to study vocal performance, piano, and composition at DePaul University and has since composed for small orchestra, a cappella choir, wind ensemble, string quartets and a host of electronic music projects. In 2001, he composed the music for Jeff Maccubin’s film Flush, which debuted at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Since graduating from DePaul in June 2002 he has made a career writing, teaching, and performing in the Chicago area and New England, including venues like the Old Town School of Folk Music, and a tour of Borders Books and Music stores. John has released two full-length CDs, Songs My Family Taught Me (MiniFresh, 2003)-an album of eclectic favorites for children and families- and C.E. 2003-an album of original rock. He currently resides in Woodstock, Vermont, where he teaches and works in his home studio composing for CGMusic.

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Lance Alster
Business Manager

Lance grew up playing many instruments though focusing on the upright bass which he played throughout high school and briefly in college. But like so many before him, a collection of effects pedals and his electric guitar led the way to a fascination with audio processing and sound design. After brief exposure to the live sound industry in 1998 with CSS Audio, Lance quickly found his place in the studio assiting at the Sound Factory in Chicago. Although concurrently enrolled at DePaul University studying sound recording technology, he realized his affinity towards business and began to focus his efforts accordingly. Lance has a degree in Music Business from DePaul and has been involved in arts management for the past four years. Recently he began managing for children's musician John Storms-Rohm, who is also a staff composer for the CGMusic team; and upon making this connection found a unique opportunity to integrate his business background with his love for production and sound design. Lance's contributions to cgmusic involve marketing and project management.

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Bob Mayo
guitarist, composer

For ten years Bob has been performing on the guitar as both band member and soloist. While still in high school his band Seventh Fold had great success,opening shows for nationally acclaimed acts such as the Big Wu, and the String Cheese Incident. His technical proficiency on the electric guitar has landed him guest spots on many recording projects, including Andrew Driscal's Billy Joel Tribute. Bob's proficiency also extends to the classical guitar repertory. In 1999 he won first prize in the Illinois Guitar League Competition. After two years at Columbia College in Chicago, he studied classical guitar in Spain and France. Currently he resides in Switzerland, where he studies with guitar master Jad Azkoul.

Over the past year Bob has contributed guitar tracks and original compositions to the CGMusic repotoire. He currently operates remotely from Europe and is available to cut tracks for any project. Some examples of his work can be found on the CGMusic licensing page.

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Greg Magers
composer, engineer

For five years Greg composed music with his Peoria based rock band Seventhfold and performed on college campuses throughout the Midwest. When the band went on hiatus he attended the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Tempe, Arizona where he graduated in March of 2001. In order to complete the degree he moved to Chicago and interned at Bosco Productions. He later was hired on at the Playroom Digital Sound Studios where he worked as an assistant engineer until he was recruited to the Sound Factory Studios as a full time engineer. After working there with artist such as Kanye West, Cap 1, Kill Hannah, Suite 13 and the Rock Star Club, Greg has been sought for various freelance projects in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. Recently he has been the main engineer for Arista recording artist Lupe Fiasco, and composer for the cgmusic team.

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