Richard K. Pugsley is the director of two noted American musical ensembles in different genres, the Gloriae Dei Cantores choir and the Spirit of America Band. He is also active as an operatic soloist, is an expert recording producer and engineer, and has led youth music education events worldwide. Gloriae Dei Cantores is associated with the Community of Jesus, a monastic organization located in Orleans, Massachusetts. That group, in turn, Pugsley said in an interview appearing on the Paraclete Records website, "was initially formed during the evangelical movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was exposed to and a part of this evolution since a very young boy, age four." Pugsley served in the U.S. Air Force and then enrolled at Ohio's Oberlin Conservatory, studying conducting with Margaret Hillis, Hugh Floyd, and John Knight, and minoring in community music. Early on, he auditioned for the choir that took the name Gloriae Dei Cantores in 1988; he was admitted by its founder/director, Elizabeth Patterson. When Patterson retired in the early 2000s, Pugsley succeeded her; he was the choir's second director. He has conducted more than 2,000 works at the Church of the Transfiguration in Orleans, ranging from the chant to the Baroque era to contemporary works, and has included secular as well as sacred music. The choir under Pugsley has toured North America, Europe, and Russia, appearing in more than 20 countries. One notable feature of the choir's repertory is that it is one of just a few American groups to perform Russian choral repertory, such as Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, in authentic style, sometimes with visiting Russian conductors. In recordings of this repertory, Pugsley has served as recording engineer; he is a member of the producers' and engineers' wing of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Pugsley has led Gloriae Dei Cantores in more than 30 recordings on the Paraclete label, and he has often contributed engineering expertise. Meanwhile, Pugsley began working with the Spirit of America Band, also headquartered in Orleans (on Cape Cod), in 1993, and rose to become its director. Under Pugsley, the band added Field Band, Winter Percussion, and Fife and Drum ensembles in addition to concert and marching bands. He even was one of the developers of a new music-movement hybrid band genre called Instrumental Theater: In Motion. Pugsley has also made several recordings with Spirit of America. He has led youth workshops on several continents in both choral singing and band music, and he has also appeared as an operatic soloist in productions in the Boston area, including one of Vaughan Williams' A Pilgrim's Progress that also included Gloriae Dei Cantores. ~ James Manheim, Rovi