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Dr. Ronald C. McCurdy (Los Angeles, California) is Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Professor of Music at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California (USC), where he served as chair of the jazz department for six years (2002- 2008). McCurdy has consulted the Grammy Foundation and the Walt Disney All-American College Band. McCurdy continues to tour the Langston Hughes Project, a multimedia presentation based on Hughes’ poem, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz, and In 2008, premiered the orchestral version of The Langston Hughes Project with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra with rapper and television actor Ice-T. McCurdy has also created or co-created two other interdisciplinary productions, including Letters From Zora (Hurston) and Shanghai Jazz: A Cultural Mix.
McCurdy co-authors The Artist Entrepreneur: Finding Success in a New Arts Economy (Rowman & Littlefield Publication, 2019). He co-authored a vocal jazz improvisation series, Approaching the Standards (Warner Bros., 2011). McCurdy authored Meet the Great Jazz Legends (Alfred Publishing, 2010). He contributed chapters to two recent publications: Teaching Music in Performance Through Jazz: Vol. I (Gia Publication) and African Americans and Popular Culture (Edited by Todd Boyd, 2008). McCurdy is a performing artist for the Yamaha International Corporation.