Treble Trouble: violinists Penny Thompson Kruse and Ioana Galu
January 4, 2008
Penny Thompson Kruse, associate professor at Bowling Green State University, has performed extensively as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician. Prior to her BGSU appointment, Kruse was on the faculty of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. 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. Kruse has appeared 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.
In spring 2006, she performed concertos with the Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra and the Sibiu State Philharmonic 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. Kruse has also performed at numerous state and national conferences including the 2003 International Viola Congress in Germany, and was a panelist and clinician at the 2006 National ASTA with NSOA Conference.
Currently, she serves as assistant principal second violin 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. Her performance of Chen Yi's Chinese Folk Dance Suite, with the Bowling Green Philharmonia, is available on Albany Records. Dr. Kruse has published articles in American String Teacher, the Strad and Journal of the American Viola Society.
Ioana Galu is a native of Romania, where she earned the Bachelor of Music and the Master of Music in violin performance from Gheorghe Dima Music Academy of Cluj. Before coming to the United States, she served on the faculty of the Music Academy as Assistant Professor of Violin and Chamber Music. She earned a second masters degree in violin performance from Bowling Green State University, and currently she is enrolled in the doctoral program at the College Conservatory of Music (CCM), University of Cincinnati. Since September 2004, she has been on the faculty of the Heidelberg College Department of Music in Tiffin, Ohio, where she became the director of the Preparatory Department in September 2005.
Ioana Galu has been awarded prizes in numerous national and international competitions, including the Second Prize in Mozart International Competition for Piano Trios (Romania) and the First Prize and a Special Prize of SOROS Foundation at the George Enescu Violin National Competition (Romania). She also won the Second Prize in the Starling Violin Competition (CCM) and was the winner of the University of Cincinnati Concerto Competition in February 2004.
Galu has performed recitals in Romania, Budapest (Hungary), Düsseldorf (Germany), Lyon and Villecroze (France), Bowling Green, Toledo, Cincinnati and New York City. She appeared as a soloist with several orchestras in Romania, with the CCM Orchestra in 2004 and with the Perrysburg Symphony in March 2005.
Currently, Ioana Galu is teaching at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina and is a member of the Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra. In the fall of 2006 she also became the concertmaster of the Central Ohio Symphony.
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