Christopher Rouse (born 15 February 1949 in Baltimore, Maryland - died 21 September 2019, ibidem) was an American composer.

Rouse studied with Richard Hoffmann at Oberlin College, graduating in 1971, and later completed graduate degrees under Karel Husa at Cornell University in 1977. In between, Rouse studied privately with George Crumb. Rouse taught at the University of Michigan from 1978 to 1981 and at the Eastman School of Music from 1981 to 2002. He currently teaches at the Julliard School (since 1997). In 2002, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Rouse is commonly referred to as a neo-romantic composer, as many of his works attempt to combine diatonicism with more contemporary musical idioms. He has been praised for his orchestration skills, particularly with percussion [1]. He often quotes works of other composers (e.g., his Symphony #1, composed in 1986, incorporates quotations from the music of Bruckner and Shostakovich). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.