Christopher “Kit” Chatham currently just finished an exciting run as the featured percussionist and percussion manager for the new instrumental theatrical show, CYBERJAM, performing in London, England.  Kit began in June 2003 with the creation and production process of the show in Bloomington, Indiana and started performing the show in August of this year at the Queens Theater in London’s West End.   CYBERJAM takes modern electric technology along with acoustic instruments and combines is with movement, dance, and theatrics. Currently, Kit is touring all over performing percussion clinics and is Head of Percussion Studies at Harrison High School in Kennesaw, GA.  Kit also recently joined the staff of the newly formed WGI Independent World Drumline, Odyssey Percussion Theater.  Kit is endorsed by Evans Drumheads and Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets.

Just prior to joining the cast of CYBERJAM in June of 2003, Kit was the featured snare drum/percussion soloist with the Tony and Emmy Award winning Broadway show Blast!, touring all over the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan.  In May of 2001, Kit became the original US touring soloist and continued with the show up until joining CYBERJAM.  Blast! revolutionized the art of taking the musicians and making them the actors, dancers, and sole performers on stages, creating the art of “music with motion”.

Before touring with the cast of Blast!, Kit lived in Athens, Georgia where he finished a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Georgia and also did freelance performing and teaching in the Atlanta/Athens area. Kit has studied percussion privately with Dr. Thomas W. McCutchen, Professor of Percussion at the University of  Georgia, and drum set with Arvin Scott.  Kit is experienced in many forms of percussion, including many unique ethnic percussion, orchestral percussion, marching, and electronic percussion.  When not performing with CYBERJAM and back in Atlanta area, Kit also plays world percussion with an Atlanta based Smooth Jazz group called PdQ.

In the summer of 2000, Kit toured the nation as a Drumline/Percussion Instructor with the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corp based then out of Newark, Delaware.  Kit has been a studio percussionist for two recording studios based outside the Atlanta area, as well as a percussionist for: Guadalajara, a Latin jazz group out of Athens; Tropical Breeze, a Caribbean steel drum band also from Athens; the John Scott Evans Band out of Columbus who in April 2000 released their first full length live CD; and many other appearances with bands from all over the nation.  In the summer of 1999, Kit performed world percussion with pianist/composer Steve Dancz at the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, the Vienne Jazz Festival in Vienne, France, and other parts of Europe.

Along with these accomplishments, Kit has also instructed and arranged percussion music for the University of Georgia Redcoat Drumline and University of Georgia Indoor Marching Percussion Ensemble for three years and the two previous years served as UGA Drumline section leader.  He has worked with many high school drumlines throughout Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama, as well as aiding the University of Tennessee Drumline.   While in college, Kit performed with many orchestral and concert ensembles including the Athens Symphony, Augusta Symphony, the University of Georgia Wind Symphony, the University of Georgia Orchestra, Redcoat Marching Band, UGA Salsa Band, UGA Percussion Ensemble, UGA Steel Band, UGA African Ensemble, and the University Studio Orchestra with world famous composer and arranger Sammy Nestico. Other educational accomplishments for Kit have been giving clinics in world, concert, and marching percussion at many schools conventioins, and percussion seminars throughout the United States and showcased on a CNN Music Education Special.