Musical career

He was born in 1957 in Evanston, Illinois

Evanston, Illinois

Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...

, USA. He moved to Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 with his family when he was a child. He studied composition at MacPhail Center for Music

MacPhail Center for Music

The MacPhail Center for Music is a nonprofit music school in a recently opened building in the Mills District of Downtown East, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school has over 7,750 students, providing instruction at 48 locations outside of its downtown Minneapolis facility on more than 35 instruments...

 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and, after graduating from high school there, went on to study composition and performance at the California Institute of the Arts

California Institute of the Arts

The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...

 from 1975 to 1977.

Influenced by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 and theater music and the burgeoning punk

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 and new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 pop music of that time, as well as the music of Minimalists Terry Riley

Terry Riley

Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...

, Steve Reich

Steve Reich

Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

, and also world and avant-garde performer/composers like Meredith Monk

Meredith Monk

Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.-Life and work:Meredith Monk is primarily known for her...

, as well as the treasure-trove of film scores available to students at Cal Arts, Mr. Poling went on to write and perform dance scores, student theater and film scores and start his own rock band, The Suburbs

The Suburbs

The Suburbs were an alternative punk rock/funk/new wave band from Minneapolis, Minnesota popular in the late 1970s through the 1980s. The band frequently headlined at Minneapolis's most influential music clubs including Jay's Longhorn Bar and First Avenue....

. The Suburbs got their first recording contract with Twin/Tone Records

Twin/Tone Records

Twin/Tone Records was a record label based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that operated from 1977 until 1994 and helped several local groups receive national attention. The label was born from the Minneapolis punk rock music scene, which included venues like Jay's Longhorn Bar. The label was begun by...

 and went on to record music for PolyGram Records, A&M Records

A&M Records

A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...

, Universal Music, Restless Records

Restless Records

Restless Records was started in El Segundo, California in 1981 by Enigma Records and primarly released alternative, metal and punk records. Restless also licensed and released records from Bar/None Records, Metal Blade Records and Mute Records...

. The Suburbs were voted among the “100 Most Influential Minnesota Musical Entities of the Twentieth Century” by The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Star Tribune

The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The...

.

In the 1990s Poling made two solo albums: one a record of his score for Theatre de la Jeune Lune

Theatre de la Jeune Lune

The Theatre de la Jeune Lune was a celebrated theater company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company, in operation from 1978 to 2008, was known for its visually rich, highly physical style of theatre, derived from clown, mime, dance and opera.-History:...

's Children Of Paradise, and the other a record of off-kilter pop songs; "Calling All Stars" for Manifesto Records

Manifesto Records

Manifesto Records is the name of an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California that has released records by The Wedding Present, Dead Kennedys, Tom Waits, Tim Buckley, Lilys, Concrete Blonde, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and others. Manifesto released the entire catalogue of Dead Kennedys...

. In 2005 he formed The New Standards

The New Standards

The New Standards is a minimalist jazz trio formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2005 and composed of Chan Poling , John Munson and Steve Roehm...

 with John Munson

John Munson

John Munson is a Minneapolis musician who is best known as the bass player for Semisonic. He was also a member of Trip Shakespeare during the late 1980s and early 1990s.-Trip Shakespeare:...

 of Semisonic

Semisonic

Semisonic is an American alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1995. The band consisted of three members: Dan Wilson , John Munson , and Jacob Slichter...

 and Trip Shakespeare

Trip Shakespeare

Trip Shakespeare was a Minneapolis-based alternative rock band of the late 1980s/early 1990s.-Origins:The band originated when Harvard University English student Matt Wilson teamed up with Elaine Harris , a Harvard grad student in biological anthropology, in the early 1980s...

 and released a CD; "The New Standards" which is composed of interpretations of a diverse collection of songwriters with Poling on grand piano, Munson on stand-up bass, and Steve Roehm on vibraphone.

In 2009, Poling's musical Venus opened at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis. It is the only musical for which Poling wrote the music, the lyrics and the script. The musical took Poling ten years to complete, and he is working on five other musicals in "various stages of completion".

Composition career

Poling's music credits include works for television, film and theater. His theater pieces include award-winning work for the Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

-winning French/American troupe Theatre de la Jeune Lune. Kevin McCollum

Kevin McCollum

Kevin McCollum is one of the leading producers on Broadway. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 1984....

 commissioned Poling to write music for a new work developed under the aegis of The Ordway Theater

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is located in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota and hosts a variety of performing arts, such as touring Broadway musicals, orchestra, opera, and cultural performers. It serves as a home to several local arts organizations, including the Minnesota Opera, The Saint...

 in St. Paul, Minnesota. His score for the Twin Cities Public Television

Twin Cities Public Television

Twin Cities Public Television is a non-profit organization based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, that operates the Twin Cities' two Public Broadcasting Service member Public television stations, KTCA-TV and KTCI-TV...

 documentary Iron Range

Iron Range

The Iron Range is a region that makes up the northeastern section of Minnesota in the United States. "The Range", as it is known by locals, is a region with multiple distinct bands of iron ore...

: A People's History (1994) won an Emmy Award, In 2008, he also composed the score to Fritz: The Walter Mondale Story

Fritz: The Walter Mondale Story

Fritz: The Walter Mondale Story is a documentary film detailing the life of former American Vice President Walter "Fritz" Mondale. It is narrated by his daughter, Eleanor Mondale.-Plot Synopsis:...

, a documentary film about the life of his father-in-law Walter Mondale

Walter Mondale

Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...

.

Personal life

Poling had three children with ex-wife Terri Paul. He has two daughters and a son. They are named Chandler Jr (27), Maddie (23), and Olivia (21). In 2005 he married Eleanor Mondale

Eleanor Mondale

Eleanor Jane Mondale Poling was an American radio personality television host, and actress.-Biography:...

, daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale

Walter Mondale

Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...

. Until her death on September 17, 2011, they lived in Minnesota on a small farm where they raised miniature horses.