Childs has garnered 17 Grammy nominations and six Grammy Awards, including two for Best Jazz Instrumental Album (The Winds of Change in 2024 and Rebirth in 2018) and two for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals (including “New York Tendaberry” from Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, featuring Renée Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma).

Born in Los Angeles, he entered USC as a composition major, graduating four years later with a Bachelor of Music in composition under the tutelage of Robert Linn. Since then Childs has received orchestral and chamber commissions from, among others, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Dorian Wind Quintet, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the American Brass Quintet, the Ying Quartet, the Lyris Quartet, Anne Akiko Meyers, Rachel Barton Pine, and Inna Faliks.

As a pianist Childs has performed with Freddie Hubbard, J.J. Johnson, Yo-Yo Ma, Sting, Renée Fleming, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, Chick Corea, the Kronos Quartet, Wynton Marsalis, Jack DeJohnette, the Dorian Wind Quintet, Ying Quartet, the American Brass Quintet, and Dave Holland, among others.