Charles Shadle teaches composition, music theory, and music history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he serves as a Senior Lecturer in Music, and as Theory Coordinator. For the National Film Preservation Foundation he has composed six film scores, all of which are commercially available. Dr. Shadle collaborated with MIT colleague and librettist Michael Ouellette on two operas, Coyotes Diner and A Question of Love, as well as the cantata, A New England Seasonal. Having previously served as Composer in Residence to the Ecclesia Consort in 2000, he held the same position with Intermezzo in 2007-08 during which time he composed the critically acclaimed opera A Last Goodbye.

He received his Ph.D. in Composition and Theory from Brandeis University and counts among his teachers Cecil Effinger, Richard Toensing, Barbara Jazwinsky, Martin Boykan, Yehudi Wyner, Edward Cohen, Harold Shapero, and Eloise Ristad. Dr Shadle is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. This heritage is reflected in works ranging from the large-scaled Oklahoma Choctaw Cycle (Limestone Gap, Red Cedar, and The Old Place) for chamber ensemble, to the short and accessible Choctaw Animals piano pieces, recently made available by MIT.