Charles Ruggiero

ABOUT

Charles Ruggiero retired from MSU in 2017. He joined the MSU faculty in 1974 where he taught composition, music theory, and jazz studies. He holds degrees from New England Conservatory and Michigan State University (Ph.D. in Composition), and prior to his arrival at MSU he held several teaching positions in Rhode Island and Connecticut, including instructor of percussion at the University of Bridgeport (Connecticut). Early in his MSU tenure, Professor Ruggiero directed the jazz and new music ensembles and later served as chair of the music theory area for 16 years. In 1983, he founded and directed the first College of Music computer music studio and developed and taught the college’s first computer music courses. His programs for the analysis of atonal music were used at many colleges and universities in North America, Korea, and Australia. An active jazz drummer from 1959 to 2006, Professor Ruggiero performed with many notable jazz musicians. His compositions include music for orchestra, wind ensembles, chamber groups, solo instruments, and voice; among them are several substantial works for the saxophone. Many of his compositions fuse elements from jazz and pre-twentieth-century Western “classical” music with materials, techniques, and formal concepts of twentieth-century European and North American art music. His music has been performed in Asia, Europe, South America, and throughout North America. Professor Ruggiero is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Composition Grant, numerous ASCAP awards, several GRAMMY nominations, and a Withrow teaching award.