Charles Ross

Charles Ross began his early music education as a cellist at the age of 5 with his father, as well as with Francesca Church, a Pablo Casals protégé. He then added percussion at age 8 and continued with both through his high school studies at the Juilliard Pre-College Division.

Charles then went on to receive a Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion from the Curtis Institute of Music, and is grateful for the guidance of his many cello and percussion mentors throughout his youth; they include Ken Belding, Robert Ramsdell, Marjorie Chan, David Fein, Jerome Carrington, Gerald Carlyss, Michael Bookspan, Alan Abel, Fred Hinger, Saul Goodman, and Cloyd Duff.

Since his college years, Charles has performed, recorded, and toured as Timpanist with many orchestras in this country and abroad, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, La Scala Opera, RAI Torino (Italy), The Moscow Chamber Orchestra and many others. His experiences of playing under such legendary conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Sergiu Celibidache, Riccardo Muti, Klaus Tennstedt, Erich Leinsdorf, Wolfgang Sawallish, as well as younger prominent conductors, namely Valery Gergiev, Paavo Järvi, Alan Gilbert, Robert Spano and Michael Stern, have left an indelable impression on his musical life, of which he is hugely grateful.

Charles joined the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as Timpanist in the 2002/2003 season and subsequently joined the Eastman School of Music faculty in 2008.

In January 2010, Charles gave his debut as timpani soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic, premiering a concerto written for him by Grammy Award-winning composer, producer, and conductor, Jeff Tyzik. Since then, he has given numerous performances of the piece, including one for public radio. In December 2015, he performed and recorded the concerto with the Eastman Wind Ensemble.

From 2008 until 2019, Charles spent his summers teaching at the Brevard Music Center in beautiful western North Carolina. Since then, Charles and his wife Jane have chosen to devote most of the spring and summer seasons enjoying their 6 grandchildren, as well as in retreat at their family’s rural property in Springwater, NY.

Charles is an affiliate artist and clinician for Pearl/Adams, Evans/D’Addario, and JG Percussion.