Faculty & Staff

Ruth Rhodes taught woodwind courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and previously served as graduate dean, director of continued education and professor of clarinet at VanderCook. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from VanderCook, Ms. Rhodes earned a master of music degree from the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University.

She is a clarinetist with the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra; co-founded and performed with the chamber group Ensemble d’Accord (including live broadcasts in the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series on WFMT); and performed with the Opera Theater of Illinois for several seasons, in addition to the Orchestra of Illinois and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Ms. Rhodes has had great fun performing on stage with the Moody Blues, Kansas, Led Zeppelin, ABBA, Manheim Steamroller, Itzhak Perlman, Marilyn Horne, Frank Sinatra Jr., and Tony Bennett, among others. Her articles have been published in Bandworld magazine and in The Instrumentalist. She served as a woodwind consultant on the “Essential Elements Band Method DVD for Hal Leonard Publishing, and was an adjudicator for the Boosey & Hawkes Buffet-Crampon Clarinet Competition.

She is very proud to have served her alma mater for more than 40 years as a faculty member and administrator.