Announcing our new Conductor!

After several months of consideration, the Board of Directors would like to announce the appointment of Dr. Jeff Suarez to the full-time conductor position for Turtle Creek Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Jeff Suarez is returning to Turtle Creek Chamber Orchestra after serving as a board member and advisor to founder Ian Nie in 2012 and 2013.   It was Dr. Nie who hired Suarez as an adjunct horn instructor at Beloit College in 1998 (giving Suarez his first opportunity in the Rock County area), and Suarez considers it a high honor to be named conductor of the orchestra started by Nie, still mourning his sudden passing in 2024.  In addition, Suarez is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater at Rock County in Janesville, Wisconsin, where he directs the U-Rock Concert Band, the U-Rock Jazz Band, founded the U-Rock Chamber Orchestra in 2002, and co-founded the now dormant U-Rock Youth Orchestra.  In addition to his directing duties, Professor Suarez also teaches music history and music technology courses, taught music theory for twenty years, and is currently interim department chair of the Department of Integrated Studies housed at the Rock County Campus of the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.