Education
MM, New England Conservatory, Boston
BM, Elizabeth University, Japan
Ruriko Wheeler has been a Hartt Community Division faculty member since 1996. She is active as a pianist performing solo and a chamber music player such as a keyboardist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Waterbury Symphony Orchestra and a member of “Music at BDL” at Bradley International Airport. She is also a participant of Music Performance Trust Funds.
Her collaborations include world premier performances of works by Lee McQuillan and William Zinn at Wesleyan University. She also performs regularly throughout Connecticut and Japan, including recitals at the Cheshire and Simsbury libraries, the American Museum of Art in New Britian, the Hillstead Museum, and at The Hartt School.
Prior to that, She was the organist at St. Ignatius Church at Boston College, the pianist for Simmons College Chorus, a pianist in Boston Ballet, the Hartford Ballet, and the University of Texas San Antonio vocal department and a faculty at MM Ponce Conservatory and also as a soloist with the Orchestra de Auguascalientes, Mexico.
She holds a MM from New England Conservatory in Boston where she received a full scholarship and third prize in De Kappa competition. She received a BM from Elizabeth University in Japan. Her primary teachers include Alicia DeLarrocha, Ryoko Fukazawa, and John Gibbons, andchamber music coaching with Josef Suk.