I have been teaching cello lessons, both privately and in schools, since 2003. I have taught students of all levels, ages 4-80. I have an education from various aspects of music, with a BA in musicology from Yale, a MM in cello performance from the Mannes College of Music, and cello performance studies at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music. I maintain an active performing schedule in the New York area, where I play with a trio, a string quartet, and various other ensembles. I have been on the teaching faculties of the Mannes College of Music, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Creative Music and Art (Monroe, CT), and the Amadeus Conservatory of Music (Chappaqua).  

Luke is a cellist based in the New York area. As an orchestral musician Luke has toured extensively including China and Scandinavia and was a regular member of the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra.  Until June 2011, Luke lived and performed in Austin, Texas playing popular and folk music and touring the southern part of the United States. He has a B.A. in music performance from Stony Brook University, studying under renowned soloist Colin Carr and the Emerson String Quartet. He is currently enrolled in the M.S.Ed degree in Music Education at Queens College.

Bach was a household icon for my family during my childhood. Every March we hosted Bach Birthday Parties and I was raised with a love of music.  Although I’d studied piano since age five, at times without much enthusiasm, everything changed when I reached age eleven and “met” my first cello. From the start, I knew I’d found my “medium” in life.  The cello was for me! Throughout middle and high school, I played a great deal of chamber music and participated in school and borough-wide orchestras. At Bennington College I majored in music and joined the Vermont State Symphony!  I was playing cello every chance I could. Following my college graduation, I spent the year in Paris, studying cello and composition. Upon my return to NYC I launched my own self-styled performing and teaching career.  I earned my Master of Arts Degree in Cello Performance at Brooklyn College. All the while, I was performing in various groups such as a 5 woman chamber ensemble called Mother Chord, and, as mentioned above, with the mandolin-English Concertina-cello trio called Calle Strada Strasse and with the musician that took me furthest around the world-Suni Paz, an Argentine singer/songwriter with whom I played from 1976 to 1997, touring Germany, Mexico, and throughout the U.S.  What a gratifying experience that has been!  Despite Suni’s move to California, we still perform together every year.

Teach beginner, intermediate, and early advanced strings, piano, and voice. Repertoire includes: Violin: Mendelssohn Concerto Em, Vitali Chaccone ed. Auer, JS Bach Sonatas and Partitas, Beethoven Romances/ Sonatas, Mozart Violin Concerto 5, Rode Caprices, Kreutzer,  etc., orchestral and chamber etc. Historical Violin and strings style and technique Viola: JS Bach Suites for Cello arr. Viola, Bach sonatas and partitas, GP Telemann Viola Concerto, Hoffmeister Viola Concerto, JC Bach Cello Concerto transcribed viola, Schubert Death and the Maiden quartet, beethoven quartets Cello: JS Bach Cello Suites, Chamber music and Orchestral music, E. Grieg Holberg Suite Piano: JS Bach inventions and well tempered clavier, S. Joplin, Chopin Military Polonaise, Beethoven sonata no. 15, Brahms Intermezzo, Ravel Infante Voice: 24 Italian Songs and Arias, Vaccai, Marchesi, Joseph 1 Alme Ingrate, Mozart Arias, Handel Arias, Catches and Glees S and A, various 18th century arias.

Oleg is a violinist who represents the brilliant Russian violin school which is arguably one of the leading violin schools in the World during 20th century. In 1984 he was accepted to Moscow Conservatory of Music and in 1991 he graduated Conservatory with highest marks in violin and piano. In 1990 he was invited to participate in IV International Violin Competition "Isola di Capri" (Capri, Italy) and won 1st Prize of this competition playing N. Paganini's 4th Violin Concerto with cadenza which Oleg Rutkovsky composed especially for this event. After competition he was invited to participate in music festival in Rimini, Italy where he shared the stage with such famous musicians as Boris Berezovsky (1st Prize 1990 P.I.Tchaikovsky Piano Competition), Enrico Pace and Evgeny Bushkov (both winners of many international competitions). After one year with State Symphony Capella of Russia where conductor was legendary Gennady Rozhdestvensky and where Oleg performed in section 1st Violins in 1992 he accepted position of Assistant concertmaster of famous Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra and traveled around the globe performing in almost every important music hall including Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, Royal Albert and Barbican Hall in London, Beethoven Hall in Bonn (Germany), Gewandhaus, Symphony Hall and Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Osaka (Japan), Musikverein Golden Hall  in Vienna and many more. In 1994 Oleg Rutkovsky immigrated to USA and settled in Fort Lee, NJ. He made his American debut recital in Memphis, TN in 1995. Since 1994 he performed with such orchestras as New Jersey Symphony, Albany Symphony, New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony, New Philharmonic of New Jersey, Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Bachanalia Chamber Ensemble and appeared in a few Broadway productions such "Ragtime" and "Music Man". In 1996, Oleg was invited to perform with the Houston Festival Orchestra as Concertmaster under the the button of Maxim Shostakovich, son of the the great Russian composer, Dmitry Shostakovich. Currently, Oleg teaches extensively in NJ where he holds a full time position as violin teacher at the NJ School of Music.