Charles Perryman, composer
Chuck Perryman is a composer, educator, and performer in the Washington D.C. metro area. His original works draw upon his love for contemporary classical music, electronic music, bluegrass, and folk traditions. By combining elements from these diverse styles, Chuck strives to create new music that is sonically attractive and musically rewarding. Chuck’s most recent pieces have combined live acoustic instruments with real-time audio processing and have explored immersive, multimedia design with audio-reactive visualizations. Chuck's music has been performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Dupont Underground, Live at 10th and G, the Lisner Auditorium, and has been recognized at national conferences and composition contests including the New Music DC annual conference, The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (S.E.A.M.U.S.) conference, the International Clarinet Association conference, The Capital Hearings Young Composers Competition, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Composer of the Year Student Reading Competition.
Chuck has also produced orchestrations for the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the Fairfax Symphony, the National Broadway Chorus, and the American Pops orchestra. His arrangements were featured at the 28th Annual Hispanic Heritage Awards on PBS and 2016 Helen Hayes Awards. Chuck holds degrees in music composition from Shenandoah Conservatory and West Virginia University and he currently teaches music theory and electronic composition at Howard University. When not writing music, Chuck is an active pit musician playing guitar, banjo, and other instruments for local productions including Arena Stage’s recent new musical Swept Away. He is also the music director and pianist for the Calvary Presbyterian Church in Alexandria and plays banjo in several local bluegrass bands. Chuck is a proud spouse and partner to April, father to Charlotte, and cat-dad to Micetro.
EVENTS
Friday, September 26, 2025
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Dupont Underground
Doors & Bar Cart Open at 6:30 PM Performance: 7:00 PM – 8:20 PM (no intermission)
Counterpoint Concerts opens its 2025–26 season with a tribute to Maurice Ravel in honor of the 150th anniversary of his birth, featuring his most evocative solo piano works. Natalia Kazaryan performs selections from Miroirs, followed by Jeux d’eau, accompanied by Charles Perryman’s live animation. The centerpiece is Ravel’s haunting Gaspard de la nuit, whose eerie characters are brought to life through real-generative visuals and a live audiovisual performance by New York-based artist Eric Lee, aka easterner.