About Me
Mike Truesdell, a Madison, WI native, began playing percussion at age 13. Mike recieved a Bachelor’s Degree in Percussion Performance from Lawrence University in June 2007. At Lawrence, he was awarded the distinguished Trustee's Scholarship, as well as the Fred Schroeder Prize in Wind Performance. Selected as one of 140 auditionees throughout the world, Mike had the opportunity to rehearse, perform, and travel with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, under the baton of Pierre Boulez and Jean Deroyer in the Summer of 2007. In January 2008, Mike will perform again with Pierre Boulez in a performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Mike has been selected as one of four finalists in the 2007 Percussive Arts Society’s International Marimba Competition, with the final-round performance to be given in Columbus, OH in Fall 2007. As winner of the 2006 Wisconsin Public Radio’s Neale Silva Competition, Mike participated in a solo marimba recital broadcast live on Wisconsin Public Radio. Other radio credits include a solo appearance on WGBH-Boston along with Fumito Nunoya, Jack Van Geem, and Nancy Zeltsman, and a live duo performance on the Chicago-area public radio station WFMT with his teacher, Dane Richeson. He has performed with a variety of groups including the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra, Lawrence University Wind Ensemble and Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, various jazz ensembles, salsa group Vale Todo, Lawrence's Brazilian, African, and Cuban percussion groups, and the National Wind Ensemble, under H. Robert Reynolds, which culminated in a performance in Carnegie Hall. He has also performed with Chicago-based contemporary ensemble CUBE on several occasions. Mike spent the Fall of 2006 studying at the Conservatory van Amsterdam with Nick Woud (Timpani, Concertgebouw Orchestra), and Victor Oskam. Mike's state-side teachers have included Vicki Peterson Jenks, Jamie V. Ryan, and Dane Maxim Richeson.
