Biography

Charles Thurmond was formerly director of the Piano Pedagogy program at USC until retirement. He returns to USC for the fall 2012 and spring 2013 semesters to helm the pedagogy courses as well as teach graduate piano literature courses and piano lessons. Prior to USC he was the director of the music synthesis program at the Berklee College of Music and was also on the summer faculties of the Utrecht Conservatory and the Hogeschool voor de kunsten en technologie in the Netherlands and Dalian Conservatory, Dalian, China. While at Berkee during the spring of 1994 he taught music synthesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Advanced Visual Study. The co-author of Improvisation at the Piano, Alfred Publications, 2009; Jazz SophistiCAT, Solo Book One and Book Two, Alfred Publications, 1995; Jazz SophistiCAT, Duet Book One and Book Two, Alfred Publications, 1995; Music thru MIDI, Book One and Book Two, 1994. He has toured extensively in Europe, Asia and the USA. He was a studio musician in New York City for many years. He is very happy to be back for this academic year and working again with the world-class students at the Thornton School of Music. He is an elected member of the Acoustic Society and has mules, horses, cows and assorted other animals on a rural farm in Tennessee.