San Gabriel Valley Choral Company Welcomes Interim Director Alexander Ruggieri (Monrovia, CA)

The San Gabriel Valley Choral Company is pleased to welcome Interim Director, Alexander Ruggieri.  Mr. Ruggieri is an experienced conductor of both choral and instrumental ensembles, with degrees from the University of Southern California and Wayne State University (Detroit).  He has studied with such noted teachers as Charles Hirt, Valter Poole, Gustav Meier, Hans Beer and Helmuth Rilling.

 

In addition to serving here, Mr. Ruggieri is also the Music Director of the famed Gilbert and Sullivan repertory company Opera a la Carte, as well as Music Director of the 32-year old University Campus Choir in Westwood.  For five years he was also the Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Bach Festival and for seventeen years he was Artistic Director of the Cambridge Singers.  He frequently does Russian language coaching for, and occasionally sings with, the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

 

Mr. Ruggieri has been involved with the music of the Eastern Orthodox Church for over 40 years.  At age 24, after founding the Orthodox Concert Choir of Los Angeles, he directed the ensemble in the west-coast premiere performance of Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil.  A subsequent recording of the work, on VOX-Turnabout records, has been the only performance of this work in the composer-sanctioned English edition in the catalogue.

 

Mr. Ruggieri was one of 12 choral music experts from around the world–working under the guidance of renowned cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and musicologist Dr. Vladimir Morosan–to compile the most important liturgical music written over the last 1,000 years.  The first volume of Monuments of Russian Church Music was published by Musica Russica in 1991.  He subsequently co-edited the volume on the “All Night Vigil” by Rachmaninoff, and continues to edit and perform the little-known music from Russia and Eastern Europe.

 

Mr. Ruggieri’s composition Madrigals was awarded first prize in the South Bay Master Chorale’s National Composition Competition in 1998. In 1995, he appeared along with his ensemble, The Cambridge Singers, with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the nationally broadcast program Music and the Spoken Word.

 

Mr. Ruggieri will be conducting the SGVCC in “Miraculous Mysteries:  Christmas Carols by Classical Masters” on December 10, 2011 in Monrovia.  The concert will include works from the late Renaissance through the 20th century, by notable composers such as Praetorious, Bach, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn.  Featured selections include Gustav Holst’s Christmas Day, Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, and John Rutter’s Candlelight Carol, along with other classical works, traditional carols and spirituals.  For concert information, see http://sgvccdec2011.eventbrite.com, , (626) 579-2433, or www.choralcompany.org.