Chad has been creating visionary new operas and performance installations for the past 20 years and is extensively trained and experienced as a composer, musician, visual artist and designer, and dancer. He is best known for his epic cybernetic operas: ELYTRA, TRISKELION, PANOPTIKON, and THE BLACK BLOOD which featured amazing science fiction costumes, elegant scenery, spectacular lighting, and provocative sexual and mythological content.

Salvata is the artistic director of his own innovative company, Ethos and has worked with VORTEX to produce his large spectacle productions. He also has created large-scale performance installations like the critically acclaimed HYPERZOO, THE 13 CIRCLES, and BLACK TOWER, HOLE, and BELL(E). One of the highlights of Chad's career was the full production (a VORTEX/Ethos co-production) of three of his operas, TRISKELION, PANOPTIKON, and THE BLACK BLOOD, as the complete X&Y TRILOGY at the historic Paramount Theatre in Austin. Chad is also an award-winning sound designer for numerous other theatrical and dance productions and has released 15 CD's of his music from his original productions.

Chad has received cultural contracts from the City of Austin and the Texas Commission on the Arts to support the creation of his new works as well as a Musical Composition Grant from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston. He has received dozens of awards and nominations for excellence.

Vortex & Ethos Performances

• Pink Sun
• The Dragonfly Princess
  B. Iden Payne Awards for Best Original Score
• Vampyress
  B. Iden Payne Awards for Best Original Score
• Bell(e)
  B. Iden Payne Award for Best Unique Theatrical Event
• hOle
• Pythia Dust
  Austin Critics' Table Award for Best Original Score
• Black Tower
• Elytra
  Top 10 Theatre Event of 2003 from Michael Barnes
• The 13 Circles
• Hyper Zoo
  Critics' Table Award and a Top 10 event of 2001 from the Austin Chronicle's Robert Faires
• The X&Y Trilogy
  Austin Critics' Table Award for Best Sound Design & B. Iden Payne "Alpha and Omega" Award
• Triskelion
  Austin Critics' Table Award for Best Costume Design
• The Apocalytes and the Tetragons
• The Black Blood
  Austin Critics' Table Award for Multi-media Excellence
• Panoptikon
• Animal Experiments, Atomic Experiments

Sound Design

• Sandy Stone's The NeoVagina Monologues
• Ring Rip Rent
• Rob Nash's 12 Steps to a More Dysfunctional Musical
• Wake for the Dark Poet
• Ghost from a Perfect Place
• Conference for the Birds
• The Scarlet Letter
• Coriolanus
• Moby Dick
• Shopping and Fucking
• The Bridge Burner
• Machinal
  B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Sound Design

Representative Recordings

• Xephyra
• Pink Sun
• The Dragonfly Princess
• Sirens of Corpa
• Pythia Dust
• Black Tower
• The 13 Circles
• Shopping & Fucking Soundtrack
• HyperZoo
• Elytra
• Triskelion
• Panoptikon
• The Black Blood