Chris Prather (b. 1995) was drawn to music at an early age. Music’s healing power offered a place of belonging through his, at times, turbulent adolescence. He began learning to play guitar at eight which soon turned to composing rock songs on his dinky 60-key Yamaha keyboard. This creative outlet lit a fire that led him down the path of becoming a composer. Prather serves as assistant orchestrator with Onyx Lane where he’s worked on a multitude of projects including Gene Kelly’s Lost Musical and Cube of Light. The obsessive, inseparable nature of his relationship with music has led to a variety of successes as a composer. One of these being the 2022 Opera on Tap-OKC premiere of his opera No Justice, No Peace (2022). Written with librettists Megan Prather and Kenneth R. Woods, this opera tells the story of a fictional Oklahoman family whose lives are changed after a violent encounter with the police. This grass roots project took years to develop, and culminated in a weekend of sold out shows thanks to a wide variety of community support. Critics have described this work as “complex, swirling, at times nearly inscrutable, but peppering moments of familiarity and cultural reference points throughout.” Recently, Prather’s piece Hope on the Horizon (2024) was given its world premiere by the UCO Wind Symphony under the baton of Dr. Brian Lamb. This profound work expresses gratitude for the role music played in his life as a beacon of light through darkness.