Chalon Ragsdale (b. 1952) is University Professor of Percussion at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His publishing concern, Aux Arcs Music, (www.auxarcsmusic.com) has focused on bringing editions of Percy Grainger’s music to the wind band medium, and he has presented on various Grainger topics in Japan (at the Japan Grainger Festival 2011), twice for patrons of the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, Australia, and in the U.S., including the 2009 CBDNA National Convention in Austin, and the 2013 Midwest International Clinic.

Ragsdale’s arrangements of the music of Grainger and others have been performed in numerous significant venues, including the Midwest International Clinic, the College Band Directors National Association, the Western International Band Conference, and many state Music Educators Conferences. His arrangement for Percussion Ensemble of Percy Grainger’s Irish Tune From Country Derry was recorded by the “Woof!” Percussion Ensemble in 2000; the CD was named one of International Record Review’s “Best Discs of 2000”, and received an Aria Awards Nomination for Best Classical CD of 2001.

In 2003, Ragsdale was awarded the Grainger Medallion by the International Percy Grainger Society “in recognition of his work on behalf of the music of Percy Grainger.”