Charles Rose is a composer, writer and sound engineer born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He holds a masters degree in Music from Portland State University. His music has been performed by FearNoMusic, In Mulieribus and the Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble. His piano trio Contradanza was the 2018 winner of the Chamber Music Northwest’s Young Composers Competition. He has studied composition with Yuan-Chen Li, David Schiff, Bonnie Miksch, Ryan Francis, and Renee Favand-See.
Charles Rose has done a little bit of everything musically. He began playing drums at age ten before learning piano, guitar and bass. He played marching snare drum in high school alongside piano in the jazz band. In college he focused on composition and music production, and began writing for Oregon Arts Watch and the Portland State University music journal Subito.
Charles’ earliest compositions were attempts at writing Bach-like fugues and canons. His compositions take from a wide array of influences, including jazz, impressionism, spectralism and minimalism. Inspired by natural phenomena, his music combines lyrical melodies with rich harmonies and textures.
