Penny Kruse

Penny Thompson Kruse, professor of violin at the College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University, has performed extensively as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician. Prior to her BGSU appointment in 2000, Kruse was on the faculty of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, for eight years. For five seasons she was a member of the Kansas City Symphony, serving as associate concertmaster during the 1989-90 season.

As first violinist of the Escher Quartet, she was an artist-in-residence at Music at Penn's Woods at Pennsylvania State University. Currently she performs with her husband, violist Steven Kruse as the Kruse Duo and with violinist Ioana Galu as Treble Trouble. During the summers, she also appears with the Eastern Chamber Players.

Kruse has been featured as soloist with several orchestras in the Midwest, including the Kansas City Camerata, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Independence Symphony, Liberty Symphony, Lima Symphony, Northland Symphony, Overland Park Orchestra, Philharmonia of Kansas City and the Hutchinson Chamber Orchestra, as well as in Hanoi with the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet Orchestra. In spring 2006, she performed concertos with the Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra and the State Philharmonic of Sibiu in Romania.

She has performed in many summer music festivals, including the Colorado, Peninsula, Spoleto and Grand Teton. As a member of the International Women's String Quartet, she performed at the 2002 National Women's Day in Hanoi, Vietman, as well as presented master classes and recitals in Tainan, Taiwan and Hanoi. In 2007, she was invited to perform and give a master class at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, Australia.

Kruse has also performed at numerous state, national, and international conferences including the 2000 College Music Society: Musical Intersections, the 2003 International Viola Congress in Germany, 2006 Percussive Arts International Conference, and was a panelist and clinician at the 2006 ASTA Conference. As a member of the Kruse Duo, she will perform at the 37th International Viola Congress to be held at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, in July 2009.

She served as assistant principal second violin and as a member of the violin faculty at Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. An active adjudicator, she received her training at Northwestern and Yale universities and earned a D.M.A. in violin performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Conservatory of Music. Her performance of Chen Yi's Chinese Folk Dance Suite, with the Bowling Green Philharmonia, is available on Albany Records. Dr. Kruse has co-authored articles in American String Teacher, the Strad and Journal of the American Viola Society with her husband, Steven Kruse.

In addition to teaching at BGSU, Dr. Kruse teaches at the BGSU String Camp - Summer Music Institute. She also has several private students that she teaches at her home in Perrysburg, Ohio, and is an OMEA Adjudicator. Her college and private students have won numerous local, state, and regional competitions.

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