Willie Ruff and Mitch Leigh

Endowed Chair Established at Yale to Honor Jazz Great

The Yale School of Music announced the creation of the Willie Ruff Chair in Jazz. Ruff is currently a professor of music at the school and director of the Duke Ellington Scholarship Program.

The endowment for the chair was donated by Mitch Leigh, the Tony Award-winning composer of Man of La Mancha. Leigh and Ruff were former classmates at Yale.