Charlie Rasmussen
Charlie Rasmussen strives to help his students develop a lifelong passion for music and cello playing. Mr. Rasmussen is currently a cello faculty member and string department co-chair at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee where he teaches private and group cello lessons, musicianship classes, and coaches chamber ensembles. He was previously on faculty at the Talent Education Suzuki School in Norwalk, CT.
Mr. Rasmussen holds a Masters of Music in Cello Performance from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (UNCG), where he was a graduate assistant and studied with Dr. Alexander Ezerman. He also received a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Music Theory from UNCG. Before his studies at UNCG, Mr. Rasmussen graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in music from Luther College where he studied with Dr. Eric Kutz. Mr. Rasmussen studied the Suzuki Method with Carol Tarr at the University of Denver.
Mr. Rasmussen is currently a historical cellist and viola da gambist in the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, the New Milwaukee Consort, and Sonata à Quattro. Mr. Rasmussen’s first solo CD, 11 Capricci by Joseph Dall’Abaco, was released by Centaur Records in July 2018. Mr. Rasmussen has previously appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Series with the New York Continuo Collective, as principal cellist with Madison Bach Musicians, and has performed in multiple early music recitals at the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music.
Mr. Rasmussen has presented lecture recitals about historical performance practice at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and for the Colorado Symphony Study Group in Denver. He has presented early music masterclasses and workshops at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and for Fairfield County (CT) CelloFest. He was the guest clinician at Cello Fest Clinic at UW-Whitewater in 2018 where he taught participants about Baroque cello.
As a modern cellist, Mr. Rasmussen performed as cellist in the Spiritoso Quartet from 2015-2016 and the Immer String Quartet while he was a student at UNCG. As an orchestral musician, Mr. Rasmussen has served as a principal cellist of the Danville Symphony Orchestra (VA), University of North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, and the Luther College Philharmonia. He has also performed with the Fayetteville and Norwalk Symphonies. An advocate of new music, Mr. Rasmussen performed in the premiere of Alejandro Rutty’s Cantabile Hop at the 2012 North Carolina Music Teacher’s Association in Chapel Hill and premiered a string quartet by Elise Grant in 2015. He has recorded for Grammy Award-winning Broadway and film composer Paul Bogaev.