Chris Hajian

Born and raised in Queens, New York, Chris Hajian began his musical education at the age of five, studying trumpet under his father, Edward, a professional musician in New York City.

Chris’ formal training started at New York’s “Famed” High School of the Performing Arts, and continued at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied classical composition. 

Chris’s composition roots began in the indie film movement of the 90’s.  Most notably, he composed the score to Ten Benny, starring Adrian Brody, that was selected for the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. He then composed the provocative score for Mr. Vincent that premiered at Sundance the following year.  Chris’s career started to blossom as he worked steadily composing for film, television, and documentaries.  He composed music for HBO’s Naked States and sequel Naked World, about the work of photographer Spencer Tunick.  Chris’ television credits include an entire season of The Knights of Prosperity (ABC), as well as the theme song for Bravo’s Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.  

Television films include scores to My Date With the President’s Daughter.  Chris composed a period orchestral score for Samantha: An American Girl Holiday (Revolution Studios – Exec. Producer Julia Roberts), Felicity: An American Girl Adventure, and Molly: An American Girl on the Homefront. 

Feature films include Inspector Gadget 2 (Disney) which Chris recorded in Australia with an 80 piece orchestra in 2003. Next came cinema vérité drama The Take (theatrical release 2008) starring  - John Leguizamo and Rosie Perez, directed by Brad Furman (2007 Toronto Film Festival).  Also in 2008, Chris scored Yonkers Joe (Tribeca Film Festival 2008) This film stars Chazz Palmenteri and Christine Lahti. In 2009, Nursery University, a documentary feature which chronicles the stories of various New York City parents on their quests to get their children into nursery school, had its television debut on the Showtime network. Also in 2009, Chris scored dark comedy feature Ex-Terminators, starring Heather Graham and Jennifer Coolidge. It premiered at the South-by-Southwest Film Festival. Next up, Chris took on the dogs in Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. 2011 saw the release of The Greatest Movie Ever Made, an edgy, comedic indie produced by David Letterman for his production company Worldwide Pants. 

Chris composed the score for an intriguing documentary titled Unraveled, which chronicles the life of the corrupt lawyer Marc Dreier, who pleaded guilty on May 11, 2009 to charges in the United states district Court for the Southern District of NY, including conspiracy to commit security fraud and wire fraud in a scheme to sell $700 million in fictitious notes. Unraveled was accepted in to the 2009 LA Film Festival and had it’s broadcast premiere on the Showtime network. 2010 saw the release of the feature Documentary First Position directed by Bess Kargman. In 2012, Chris scored Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald, narrated by Liev Scrieber. Chris’ most recent documentary score is Men of the Cloth, premiering at the Montclair Film Festival in 2014. 

In the summer of 2013, Chris scored Universal Pictures’ The Little Rascals Save the Day. In February of 2014 Chris wrote the score for Beethoven’s Treasure Tail, also for Universal. Both scores feature the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra and were recorded in Bratislava and New York City. Most recently, Chris finished the score for Jingle All the Way: 2 and A Royal Christmas for the Hallmark Channel (starring Jane Seymour and Lacey Chabert).