Chris Dorsey was born in Byron, Georgia, in 1971. He began his formal guitar training with Douglas Back at Georgia Southwestern University and later continued with John Pell at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee where he received his BA in Music. He received his MA in Music from Middle Tennessee State University, where he studied with William Yelverton. Under the direction of the distinguished teacher and guitarist Frank Koonce, Chris received his Doctor of Musical Arts from Arizona State University in 2005. The title of his doctoral dissertation is Guarango como guitarra en tango [Awkward as a Guitar in the Tango]: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the Guitar in the Argentinean Tango.

In the summer of 1998, Chris studied flamenco with guitarist Miguel Ángel Corral in Granada, Spain at Escuela Carmen de las Cuevas. He has performed in the master classes of William Kanengiser, Dusan Bogdanovic, Evangelos & Liza, David Leisner, Michael Chapdelaine, and Javier García Moreno. In 2000, the Arizona State University College of Fine Arts and the "Friends" of the ASU Center for Latin American Studies awarded Christopher grants to study tango in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied with guitarist/composer Hugo Romero.

Chris is also active both as a soloist as well as a member of the Santa Fe Guitar Quartet of Argentina and Che Tango, an Argentinean tango ensemble, featuring bandoneonist Mario Vázquez.

In 2005, Chris Dorsey, also a Suzuki registered instructor, established the Dorsey Guitar Studio, which offers quality instruction in music and classical guitar to children, youth, and adults.