Gregory Ruffer

Gregory Ruffer, Music Director and Founder of The Orlando Chorale, is an accomplished singer, teacher, clinician and conductor who has performed extensively throughout the United States. The Washington Post has called Ruffer's work "exquisite" and "powerful."

In recent years Ruffer has made an indelible mark on the performing arts in Florida. He founded The Orlando Chorale in 2002 as a 28-voice ensemble of professional and experienced singers. Today The Chorale comprises 70 voices, including a core of professional, paid singers, a music staff of three and an artistic intern program for young conductors. His passion for new music is evidenced by the dozens of choral works and arrangements Ruffer has commissioned over the last decade and the regular showcasing of new works by The Orlando Chorale.

Ruffer also holds the position of Director of Choral Activities and Applied Voice at Central Florida Community College in Ocala, Florida. There he directs two choirs and teaches applied voice and sightsinging. Concurrently he is pursuing a doctoral degree in Collegiate Music Pedagogy from Columbia University Teacher's College in New York City.

Recently Ruffer served as Music Director and Conductor of the Gulf Coast Men's Chorus in Sarasota, Florida. There he earned praise for the bold musical growth of the chorus, highlighted by the premier of several new works, including settings by Ruffer, and the establishment of a winter performance home at the spectacular Sarasota Opera House. Under his leadership the Chorus regularly worked with community groups, including Mothers Helping Mothers and PFLAG, helping to raise funds for needed charity work.

From 1999-2000 Greg served as the Conductor of the 160-voice Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC, a position which followed 2 years as the Assistant Music Director of that group. For 3 years he was also Music Director of Potomac Fever, a 12-voice men's a cappella ensemble in Washington, DC. With these groups he recorded 2 CDs and conducted concerts at The Kennedy Center, Constitution Hall, Atlanta's Symphony Hall, Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, San Jose Performing Arts Center, George Mason University, Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark, and at The University of Oslo, Norway, among others. His work often included professional players from the National Symphony Orchestra, The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the Washington DC military bands, and other leading ensembles, where he earned a reputation as an outstanding musician and compelling conductor.

As a baritone Greg sang with The Washington Chorus, including concerts at The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall and on the Grammy Award-winning recording, Of Rage and Remembrance, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin. Ruffer has also sung with the Paul Hill Chorale, Capital Camerata, Findlay Light Opera Company, and as a guest singer with the Washington Singers professional chamber choir. As a baritone soloist he has appeared with the McLean Choral Society and the Capital Camerata, and at churches throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Mid-West regions. He has had the pleasure of singing under the direction of many distinguished conductors, including Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Dale Warland, Robert Shafer and Paul Hill.

Ruffer has held a number of other positions, including Music Director and Touring Coordinator for Orlando Ballet, Music Director for the University of Findlay Summer Stock Repertory Theatre, Director of Education for Orlando Opera, and Director of Music at College Park United Methodist Church in College Park, MD. He spent nine years teaching vocal and instrumental music in schools in Ohio and Washington, DC, and also held the position of Program Manager for the National Initiative to Preserve America's Dance from 1997 to 2002.

Ruffer holds an MM and a BM in Music from Bowling Green State University, where he studied voice with Andreas Poulimenos, Virginia Starr and Tina Sandor Bunce. He has also done continued voice study with Carmen Balthrop at the University of Maryland. His conducting teachers have included Emily Freeman Brown, Mark Kelly, Kyprous Markou, Louis Gorelick, and Dale Warland.

Greg has professional memberships with the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), The Conductors Guild, Chorus America, American Symphony Orchestra League, and is a voting member for the Grammy Awards with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). In 1989, 1996 and 1998 he was named an Outstanding Young Man in America. He has been a frequent music grant panelist for the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs and serves as an adjudicator for Heritage Festivals. Ruffer's ensembles have appeared at conventions of the Mid-Atlantic Division of ACDA, Ohio Music Education Association and the Florida ACDA.