Rick Rognstad has been at the University of South Dakota since 1986, where he conducts the USD Symphony Orchestra and teaches double bass, music theory, and American music. Active as a guest conductor and clinician, he has led orchestras in South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, and Florida. He has studied conducting extensively with Paul Wolfe, Jurgen de Lemos, Abraham Chavez, Giora Bernstein, and at Indiana University. His bass teachers include Stuart Sankey, Barry Green, and Gaston Dufresne. He has served as principal bass for orchestras in Wyoming, Colorado, Florida, and South Dakota and has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in seventeen states, Canada, Austria, and Germany. An expert in American music, Rognstad has published articles, liner notes, and reviews widely, and been instrumental in unearthing repertoire for the USD Symphony Orchestra and recordings of the Rawlins Piano Trio from the generations of American composers active between the Civil and First World Wars. He has recorded three CD's on the Albany Records label.

American music; double bass

American music; double bass