Evan Christopher
Evan Christopher (born August 31, 1969, in Long Beach, California) is an American jazz clarinetist and composer. He trained at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts and later studied saxophone at the University of Southern California. He finished his studies on clarinet at California State University, Long Beach. His early mentors were clarinetists Kenny Davern, Tony Scott, and soprano saxophonist George Probert.
In the early 1990s, tours with singer A. J. Croce brought him to New Orleans. He moved there in 1994 and played many gigs before joining the Jim Cullum Jazz Band in San Antonio in 1996. For nearly three years he was their featured clarinetist and recorded Riverwalk Jazz.
After returning to New Orleans, he had to leave again in 2005 because of Hurricane Katrina. He traveled widely and even lived in Paris for a time, where he started the Jazz Traditions Project and Django à la Créole, a fusion of Gypsy jazz with New Orleans grooves. His work with Irvin Mayfield’s New Orleans Jazz Orchestra later helped him return to New Orleans.
Christopher helped found NOLA ArtHouse Music and the Seahawk Modern Jazz Orchestra in Southern California. He has written about the New Orleans clarinet style. In 2002 he began studying musicology at Tulane University. From 2008 to 2009 he taught part-time at the University of New Orleans and led an ensemble that performed with Lucien Barbarin and Marcus Roberts. In July 2010, he premiered the Treat It Gentle Suite, a concerto for clarinet and jazz band with the Minnesota Orchestra.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:26 (CET).