Ray Nugent was raised in Red Bank, NJ and graduated from Red Bank Regional High School in 2010

Ray graduated from Westminster Choir College in 2014 summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Piano, and in 2016 with a master‘s in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, with distinction, while holding a Graduate Assistantship for the Piano Department. While at Westminster, he placed second in the freshman level Annual Piano Competition and third in junior level competition, and in his sophomore year he received the Damien Dixon Scholarship Award. Ray was also the accompanist for the Westminster Conservatory Collegiate Chorale in their production of Titanic: The Musical, and the for the Westminster Players in their production of the musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Besides piano, he was also a member of the Westminster Concert Handbell Choir for five years, which tours different regions of the country annually.

Currently, I am teaching full-time at a small special needs school in Pennington, NJ called the Cambridge School. I teach handbells and handchimes to grades K-6, assist with the annual musical, and co-teach a high school performing arts elective. I also continue to teach an applied piano studio and accompany rehearsals, performances, and musicals around NJ during the busy winter spring performing seasons. This fall, I've been coordinating music for a virtual performance with Young Starrs Theater Company, a community theater company outside of Philadelphia, and when pandemic restrictions are lifted I will continue to perform nationally with my handbell quartet, Quadrants.