Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, performer, conductor and composer, Jean (Rudy) Perrault is a sought-after educator/clinician, composer, performer, and conductor, nationally and internationally. His compositions have been commissioned for, and performed by, world famous musicians and ensembles. His most recent projects include an arrangement of Ludovic Lamothe’s Danza #4 for Violin, Cello and Hand Drum, an original work for string orchestra (Sometimes, I Feel…), commissioned by the Northwest Suburban Conference high school orchestra programs, depicting the events surrounding the George Floyd murder; a Duo for Flute and Double Bass entitled “Caged” commissioned for the 2020 National Flute Conference; and a Piano Trio (We Three Kings) commissioned by the Clayton-Jackson-McGhie Memorial organization, marking the 100th anniversary of the 1920 Duluth lynching.
Current projects include a Duo for Violin and Cello (Dialogues for Violin and Cello), a Duo for Cello and Hand Drum (Peze Kafe), and a work for 13 Instruments. His latest commission is a Duo for Cello and Piano for the Bardin-Niskala-Duo. Future projects include setting to music three poems of world-renowned author Edwidge Danticat, and a ballet (Seremoni). For more than a decade, Rudy has been collecting, digitizing, and editing the piano works of Haitian classical composers. His latest compilation: The music of Solon Verret, will soon become available. Rudy’s compositions, compilations and arrangements are distributed through JW Pepper.
He is Professor of Music, and Director of Orchestras, at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He is a frequent judge/panelist at festivals and competitions in all corners of the world. Rudy is a founding member of the Kako Foundation (kakofoundation.com), a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing music to at-risk youth in the US and Haiti. Rudy makes his home in Duluth, Minnesota.