Regan Ryzuk
Piano Faculty, Jazz & Composition
Regan Ryzuk is an American composer, pianist, and educator whose career spans the concert hall, ballet studio, jazz stage, theater, and screen. Trained at Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School, he studied classical piano with Robert Helps and advanced jazz with Sir Roland Hanna and Jaki Byard — placing him in a direct pedagogical lineage connected to the teachings of Frédéric Chopin. He is Adjunct Faculty at Montclair State University, where he specializes in classical improvisational piano.
For more than three decades, Ryzuk has served as pianist for New Jersey Ballet, developing a highly refined improvisational approach to dance — an experience that shaped his compositional voice and led to his ambitious 48 Preludes and Fugues. As a composer, he has written music for over 500 television programs and films, with credits including Kissing Jessica Stein, The Night Listener, and work for PBS, The History Channel, 60 Minutes, Saturday Night Live, and many others. His concert works include a Concerto for Two Pianos, a recently completed piano concerto, and ten piano sonatas released as a four-CD set.
A devoted educator with decades of teaching experience, Ryzuk integrates creativity, ear training, history, and theory into a philosophy that fosters improvisation within a classical framework while encouraging exploration across jazz and other creative styles. His theatrical works include Joe’s Bar (winner of the NJ A.C.T. Perry Award for Best Original Musical) and seven full-length Grimm’s Fairy Tale musicals. He has performed and recorded with artists including Quincy Jones and the Wu-Tang Clan, made his Weill Recital Hall debut in 1992, and has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Darress Theatre in New Jersey.