Sutton, Michael

He is a violinist born in Minneapolis, Minnesota who is the only child of the operatic tenor and Minnesota Opera founding member Vern Sutton. He studied firstly at the MacPhail Center for Music before attending the Manhattan School of Music where he earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. While a student there he received the Bauer Award for Outstanding Accomplishment and the Kortschak Award for Chamber Music.

He held the position of concertmaster of the New World Symphony in Miami for four years and lived abroad when he was a leader of Japan’s Pacific Music Festival and Europe’s Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

He became a member of the Minnesota Orchestra in 1997, where he holds the position of Second Violin and in 2014 he took on the second position of Concertmaster of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra since 2014.

As a chamber musician he has performed with The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the violist Kenneth Freed at a 2007 chamber concert and participated in Sommerfest programs where he has performed with the violinsit Pekka Kuusisto and the pianist William Wolfram.

Recordings he has performed on include Young Sunset by Rupert Angeleyes, Here’s Luck by Honeydogs, Mockingbird Time by The Jayhawks, Otto Luening: Orchestral Works 1917-1992, For the Friends of Alec Wilder and Thine Alone (Songs & Orchestral Works of Victor Herbert) by The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, A Tribute to Enya by Neoera, Music of Villa-Lobos and Morton Feldman: Coptic Light by the New World Symphony and Serenity ( A Collection of Relaxing Classical) by Adi Yesheya.

In the field of musical education he has worked with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies as a violin coach and has been a faculty member of the MacPhail Center for Music.

His wife is the Suzuki teacher Beatrice Blanc who also works at the MacPhail Center of Music.

Sources:

Sutton, Michael

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