Member
Contact Information
crussell@calpoly.eduLocation
San Luis Obispo
California
Early Music Skills & Interests
Guitar, Other Plucked StringsEarly Music Affiliations
Composer, Educator, Music/Artistic Director, Musicologist, Performer, Radio/TV
Biography
Cal Poly professor-emeritus Craig Russell is steeped in the music of Spain, Mexico, and the Hispano-American world, having published over 120 juried articles on eighteenth-century Spanish culture, the California missions, and American popular music. He authored 26 articles for the newest edition of The New Grove Dictionary and collaborated with Chanticleer on a DVD film and four compact disks, two of which received Gramophone award nominations. His scholarship (including four major books) has been published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge, Macmillan, Prentice Hall, the University of Illinois Press, and several publishing houses in Spain and Mexico. In recognition of his contributions to Spanish music, he was inducted into Spain’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts ‘San Jordi’ (an exceedingly rare honor for a non-Spaniard).
Craig Russell’s compositions span the gamut from tiny to titanic, from solo piano to grand-scale theatrical musicals. His works have been performed in Europe, Australia, and the USA—including concerts dedicated to his orchestral compositions in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Sydney Opera House, and Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Some compositions have been aired on national television, incorporated into films, or released on Naxos.
Craig Russell is well known on California’s Central Coast as the co-host of In-Concert, a classically-oriented radio show on the local NPR affiliate KCBX. A guitarist, he spent his summers in Spain, studying with maestro Emilio Pujol. In recent years, Craig has devoted himself to historical performance on baroque guitar, playing solo recitals and improvising the basso continuo accompaniments in professional baroque orchestras.
