|
 Flutist, Suzanne Rucker grew up in Portage, Michigan. She attended Western Michigan University where she received a Bachelor's in Music, with majors in Performance and Secondary Music Education. She was a Senior Concerto Contest winner, a Tri-Cities Concerto Contest winner, as well as a Bach Festival Young Artist winner. She then attended Florida State University where she was a graduate teaching assistant and received her Master's in Flute Performance
Presently, Suzanne is a free-lance musician and teaches privately at The Crescendo Academy of Music in Kalamazoo, and at the Battle Creek Community Music School.
Her professional experience includes 9 years with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, where she acted as assistant principle. Suzanne was the principal flute for the Kalamazoo Bach Festival Orchestra, Instructor of Flute at Kalamazoo College, and has taught flute for various Western Michigan University Summer Seminars.
She has performed with Ray Charles, Dave Brubeck, and was a piccolo soloist with the Moody Blues. Suzanne is very proud of the trio, The Classic Touch. "We really love what we do! We've been together for many years and take pride in providing great music for our clients. "It's a real joy to share what we do with others on their special day."
 Violinist Julie Evans, a Boston native, received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in violin performance from Boston University and The University of Michigan respectively. Julie also spent six summers studying and performing at Tanglewood, the summer music festival of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, during her high school and college years. After graduation, she free-lanced in Boston for a year before beginning extensive travels to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Finland, Estonia, Russia and Tunisia. Julie has played in performances with Lou Rawls, Doc Severinson, Aretha Franklin, Bernadette Peters, and Itzhak Perlman among others. Presently, Julie is an Assistant Professor of Music at Western Michigan University in the Music Theory Department, serves as Assistant Principal Second Violin in the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and performs as a member of the Classic Touch Trio.
 Cellist, Katherine Shook grew up in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook. She received her Bachelor of Music Performance Degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and her Master of Music Performance Degree from Northern Illinois University. In addition to being the Assistant Principal Cellist with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Shook performs with the Bach Festival Orchestra with whom she has performed the solo cello position in both the St. John and the St. Matthew Passions.
Ms. Shooks professional experience has included being a core member of the Grand Rapids Symphony, Associate Principal Cellist of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Principal Cellist for Bach West of Scottsdale, Arizona She has participated in the Blossom Festival, Principal Cellist for the Colorado National Repertory Orchestra, the Chamber Music Seminar at the Cleveland Institute of Music and was a fellowship student at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, where she received the C.D. Jackson Merit Award.
She is particularly proud of the accomplishments of the Classic Touch Trio, a local trio of which she is a founding member along with flautist, Suzanne Rucker. The Classic Touch Trio has been performing in the Kalamazoo area for more than 22 years and has made a lasting reputation for being the premier musical offering of this genre in the entire area.
Katherine has performed with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood with the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, on stage with Lyle Lovett at the State Theatre in Kalamazoo, Principal Cello under Doc Severinson with the Phoenix Symphony and most recently soloed with Bernadette Peters at Miller Auditorium as Principal Cello with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. |
|
|
