University Professor Chalon Ragsdale to Give Talk at Grainger Museum

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Chalon Ragsdale, University Professor of percussion at the University of Arkansas, will give a public lecture at the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, Australia. Ragsdale's talk will center on his research on famed Australian composer, arranger, and pianist, Percy Grainger (1882-1961). Known as the "Genius of Australia," Grainger was the country's most prolific composer with a long career in the United States. 

Ragsdale's talk will illustrate how Grainger's philosophy, and his practical applications of that philosophy, helped determine the directions of percussion writing and performance in the 20th and 21st centuries. Using musical examples ranging from Bach and Grief to Stravinsky, Bartok, Grainger, and Grainger's pupils, composers Henry Cowell and Bernard Herrmann, Professor Ragsdale will trace the life and work of Percy Grainger.

ABOUT THE GRAINGER MUSEUM

Its fascinating collection contains not only objects directly related to Percy Grainger's compositional career, such as scores and manuscripts, but also more than 50,000 items, including diaries, ethnographic objects, furniture, decorative arts, photographs, artworks, clothing, and correspondence with famous and not-so-famous contemporaries.

Grainger began planning the Museum after his mother's death in 1922 and it was officially opened in December 1938. The building was designed by the University's architect, John Gawler of the firm Gawler and Drummond, in close consultation with Grainger. The museum's historical and architectural significance is recognized by the building's inclusion on the Register of the National Estate and the Victorian Heritage Register, and its classification by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria).

In 1955, Grainger set down his revised Aims of the Grainger Museum, outlining his 'cosmopolitan and universalist outlook on music.' Grainger's wide-ranging interests have resulted in a unique Museum with broad appeal, a must-see for locals and tourists alike.

ABOUT PROFESSOR RAGSDALE

Chalon Ragsdale came to the University of Arkansas in 1975 as Percussion Instructor and Assistant Band Director. As University Professor, he currently serves as Director of Percussion Studies and Head of the Music Education Area. From 1990-1998, he was Chair of the UA Department of Music.

He has served as Professor of Percussion and as Director of the UA Percussion Ensemble; as Director of the Razorback Marching Band; as Director of the UA Concert Band; and from 1989 to 1992 served as Conductor of the UA Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble.

The Percussion Ensemble under his direction has performed for audiences at state, regional and national conventions. His private students have won performing honors at the state, regional and national levels of MTNA.

Chalon Ragsdale is University Professor of percussion at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His publishing concern, Aux Arcs Music, (www.auxarcsmusic.com) has focused on bringing editions of Percy Grainger's music to the wind band medium, and he has presented on various Grainger topics in Japan (at the Japan Grainger Festival 2011), twice for patrons of the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, Australia, and in the U.S., including the 2009 CBDNA National Convention in Austin, and the 2013 Midwest International Clinic.

Ragsdale's arrangements of the music of Grainger and others have been performed in numerous significant venues, including the Midwest International Clinic, the College Band Directors National Association, the Western International Band Conference, and many state Music Educators Conferences. His arrangement for Percussion Ensemble of Percy Grainger's Irish Tune From Country Derry was recorded by the "Woof!" Percussion Ensemble in 2000; the CD was named one of International Record Review's "Best Discs of 2000", and received an Aria Awards Nomination for Best Classical CD of 2001.

In 2003, Ragsdale was awarded the Grainger Medallion by the International Percy Grainger Society "in recognition of his work on behalf of the music of Percy Grainger."  

Ragsdale earned an undergraduate degree in music education from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama in 1973 and the Master of Music degree in percussion performance from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina in 1975. He served as director of instrumental music in the Tallapoosa County, Alabama, school district from 1973-74. He has studied percussion principally with Harold A. Jones, Johnnie Vinson, and Larry Mathis. Professor Ragsdale is sponsored by Innovative Percussion, makers of specialty sticks and mallets.