2006 Chancellor's Excellence Award
Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities - Ralph T. Dudgeon
Dudgeon,
a well-known scholar and major researcher in trumpet performance,
becomes the fifth SUNY Cortland staff member to receive the Chancellor’s
Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.
Dudgeon is among the greatest authorities on the history and music of the keyed bugle. He is also a recognized authority on period music and a member of prestigious organizations on two continents. In 2005, Dudgeon received a SUNY Chancellor’s Research Recognition Award, honoring him among SUNY’s most important and innovative scholars and scientists.
He earned an M.A. in trumpet performance from San Diego State University in 1972 and a Ph.D. in musicology from University of California, San Diego, in 1980. He under- took post-graduate study in trumpet perfor-mance and conducted with noted performers John Clyman, former principal trumpet, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Film Studios; Gerard Schwarz, former principal trumpet, New York Philharmonic; and Frederick Fennell, Eastman Wind Ensemble.
Dudgeon taught for five years at the University of Texas at Dallas before joining SUNY Cortland’s Performing Arts Depart-ment in 1985. Promoted to professor in 1994, he chaired the department from 1997-2000. In 1998-99, he was an affiliate artist at Syracuse University in the Early Music Ensemble. He is currently a trumpet mentor at Colgate University.
In 1993-94, while on a leave of absence, Dudgeon served as acting director and curator of the Streitwieser Foundation Trumpet Museum in Pottstown, Pa., with responsibilities for collection management, educational pro-gramming, publications and development of a concert series. He assisted in the relocation of the collection to Austria.
Each year since 1996, he has devoted two months as a research consultant to Instrumentenmuseum, Schloß Kremsegg, in Kremsmunster, Upper Austria.
His published books include The Keyed Bugle (1993) and Das Flugelhorn (2003). He wrote two chapters for The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments (1997), “Keyed Brass” and “Learning and Teaching Brass.” The Keyed Bugle is considered the definitive research on that instrument. A second, expanded edition of The Keyed Bugle was released in 2004. His 2003 text, Das Flugelhorn, published in German and English, provides a brief history of the flugelhorn and features more than 100 color photos of instruments housed in the Instrumenten-museum, Schloß Kremsegg in Upper Austria as examples of change in the instrument’s technology over the past 300 years. He contributed two chapters to the Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments.
His refereed articles have appeared in key publications including The International Trumpet Guild Journal, Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, Historic Brass Society Journal; New Grove’s Dictionary of Music in the United States, Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World and Ovation.
A frequent reviewer of recordings and music, Dudgeon’s book reviews have appeared in juried publications such as The Journal of American History, Historic Brass Society Journal and International Trumpet Guild Journal.
His research has been supported by grants from the European Union and German government, the Crystal Trust and the American Association of Museums.
He has appeared throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada and Mexico as a trumpet soloist and conductor. He founded the San Diego Brass Quintet and Sonare Early Music Ensemble. His debut solo album, “Music for the Keyed Bugle,” was the first full-length recording devoted to the keyed bugle. He has recorded for Musical Heritage Society, Music Masters, Newport Classic, Nimbus, Hyperion, Innova and Spring Tree labels.
Dudgeon directs the Miss Lucy Long Social Orchestra and Quick Step Society and is a member of Syracuse Camerata, Sonare, Colgate University Orchestra, Utica Symphony and the London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble.
He has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Men of Achievement, and The International Who’s Who in Music and Musician’s Directory. A member of the Phi Kappa Phi interdisciplinary honor society, he is also a campus representative of the College Music Society, a charter and advisory board member of the Historic Brass Society, a charter member of the International Trumpet Guild, and member and former president of the Streitwieser Foundation.