Mike Rugnetta
composer and programmer

Mike Rugnetta is a composer, programmer, sound designer and musician who lives and works in Brooklyn. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he became involved in theatre and music as a youngster and went on to attend Bennington College as a theatre tech major. While at Bennington, his interests shifted and after much academic soul searching and many stressful advisor meetings, he ended up with a degree in Music Composition and Computer Science.

Along the way he ended up developing interests in finger style acoustic guitar and Derek Bailey’s method of total improvisation, as William S. Burroughs and Edward Tufte’s books on the organization of information. To date, these four things remain sources to which Rugnetta turns when in need of inspiration.

After graduation, Mike moved to New York City. He worked at an uptown art’s organization here, a downtown art’s venue there. A stint as a creative professional services technician (think ProTools and Final Cut for famous people) and another as the director of a continuing education program focused in the arts. All the while, Rugnetta was involved in works being produced by Avant Media and other groups around the city.

He has performed or had work performed at 20 Greene, St. Mark’s Church, The Kitchen, Lincoln Center, Columbia University, and The Gene Frankel Theatre to name a few. Rugnetta has worked as commissioned composer or sound designer for dance, performance, theatre and video as well as performer (guitar, laptop, voice), technical director, lead audio engineer, and director.

He currently works as a freelance engineer and programmer. His most recently projects include FOH mixes for New York based composer Nick Brooke and a computer controlled motorized digital video system for the Chocolate Factory Theatre in Queens. He was co-producer and lead mix engineer on New York based band The Kiss Off’s debut EP Brace. He also teaches Max/MSP and Jitter at the Product Architecture Engineering Department of the Masters School of Architecture at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.