Charles Argersinger

After completing a doctorate at the University of Minnesota in 1979 with Dominick Argento, Charles Argersinger went on to teach at California State University, DePaul University, and Washington State University, where he is coordinator of the music composition and theory program. He serves on the national council of the Society of composers Inc. (SCI) as the cochair of the Pacific Northwest region.

Among his awards, Dr. Argersinger earned 1st prize for a brass fanfare, in 1995, for the United Nations’ 50th anniversary. His Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, recorded by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago, was premiered by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra in 1992 and has since been performed by major orchestras across the country.

In 1997, Dr. Argersinger was named the Washington State Music Teachers Association’s Composer of the Year, and he was awarded the Idaho Commission on the Arts’ Composer Fellowship. Dr. Argersinger took 2nd place in the Tampa Bay Composers’ Forum Excellence in Chamber Music Composition Competition in 2002, and 1st prize in the MACRO International Composition Competition for 2002–2003.

Most recently, the prime minister of Thailand commissioned Dr. Argersinger to write the nonet “Seven Degrees of Freedom,” for woodwind quintet plus string quartet, for the All-Nations Ensemble of Southeast Asia. The premiere took place in Bangkok on October 5, 2003.

Dr. Argersinger is the founding director of the WSU Festival of Contemporary Art Music, which began in 1989.