Bio

Charles Fugo is currently Professor of Piano at the University of South Carolina School of Music, where he teaches applied piano and coaches chamber music. He received his baccalaureate degree at Oberlin Conservatory, with additional study at the Akademie des Mozarteums, Salzburg, Austria, and his MM and DM Performance degrees at Indiana University, where he was also awarded the Performer’s Certificate. During his study at Indiana he was also named a state winner in the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Division. His principal teachers include Abbey Simon, Jorge Bolet, and Joseph Schwartz, with additional study under Winfried Wolf, Sidney Foster, and Robin McCabe, with chamber music coaching under Menahem Pressler of the Beaux Arts Trio.

The recipient of the 2008 Cantey Outstanding Faculty Award given by the School of Music, he was also a staff member of the Anderson (S.C.) Piano Performance Camp and the summer honors program of the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, serving in the latter capacity for 13 years. Dr. Fugo was also official accompanist for the Josef Hofmann Competition, held in Aiken, South Carolina, over a five-year period. For over 10 years he was sponsored by the South Carolina Arts Commission (Stage South Community Tour) as a member of both the Jesselson/Fugo Duo and the American Arts Trio. A frequent adjudicator, he has judged at local, state and regional levels.

Dr. Fugo has played collaborative recitals at New York City’s Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and has recorded the complete music for viola and piano by Robert Schumann in collaboration with Lenny Schranze, as well as transcriptions for double bass of works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Franz Schubert and César Franck in collaboration with Craig Butterfield, both issued on Centaur Records. As a member of the Jesselson/Fugo Duo he has also participated in a CD that is available online, “Carolina Cellobration,” featuring works of six South Carolina composers for cello and piano, commissioned by the Duo. He has also appeared as soloist with the South Carolina Philharmonic, the South Carolina Chamber Orchestra, and the Florence (S.C.), Charleston (S.C.) and Temple (Texas) Symphony Orchestras. He has performed throughout the Southeast and in other areas of the United States, and has appeared on several statewide programs on South Carolina Educational Radio and Television as both soloist and chamber musician.