Chris Kazarian

“[Chris Kazarian’s] ability to oscillate between genres never ceases to impress me from electronic hip hop to R&B to Rock. . .” – Berklee Student
The versatile singer was born in Worcester, MA, March 10, 1990. He grew up in an artistic household, his mother a registered nurse and former dancer, his father a local rapper/recording artist and a transporter at a hospital. Chris spent many chapters of his early childhood playing with his father’s studio equipment, writing songs, singing, and learning beat-boxing. Together, his parents’ eclectic ideals for music (a household that put Beck, Soundgarden and The Beatles on the same playlist as The Fugees, Terence Trent D’Arby and Stevie Wonder) would shape him into the wildly innovative musical mind he aspires to be, setting the tone for a lifetime of creation and discovery through the arts. When asked the question, “How did you find your instrument?” he replied, “Well my voice is a part of me. I never had to look for it, and never it for me. We are harmony, we are melody, we are soul.”

And that is often how he’s portrayed - An embodiment of soul. Flea Market Funk describes Chris as, “. . .playing Al Green, D’Angelo, and Anthony Hamilton at once. . .”
Peers at Berklee often call him, “Berklee’s Marvin Gaye” or “ Pharrell Williams on steroids”. His long time colleague, collaborator, friend, and fellow songwriter, Alec Hutson, says, “Chris’s music can handle big stages, little stages, sitting rooms, packed bars/clubs, and everywhere in between . . . one of the strongest voices I’ve heard.”

Since he enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and throughout his career at Berklee, Chris has helped garner accolades for himself and his fellow musicians. In the first month of his freshman year at Umass Amherst, Chris auditioned for the contemporary a cappella group, “The Doo Wop Shop” to partake in what would later be deemed “the golden age” of the all male a cappella group. Together they would combine their sharp ears and keen innovative minds to forge many outstanding and unique a cappella arrangements, including the virally famous “Disney Medley”, which currently holds 6 million views and counting.

At the end of that same freshmen year at Umass Amherst, Chris became the lead singer of Kids on a Hill and experienced his first taste of success with a live band. The 10 piece funky, groovy, Kids on a Hill rocked the Amherst Valley from Spring 2009