Rusty Wulff, a Minnesota native and now a full time Mercer resident, spent 33 years teaching music in Wisconsin public schools. Great effort was expended in his attempts to avoid pursuing music past high school, but in this pursuit, he failed when he discovered that some things in life…choose us! Consequently, he threw himself into learning all he could about music, a fascination that continues with no sign of relenting.
Rusty has a B.S. in Music from Winona State University, Ed/K-12 instrumental, strings, and vocal. He holds an ME-PD master’s degree from UW-La Crosse. Additional graduate study at VanderCook College of Music, St. Catherine University, UW-Whitewater, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and UW-Madison. A highlight of his life was taking lessons with Vincent Cichowicz, Chicago Symphony and Northwestern University faculty emeritus.
Rusty plays several instruments and enjoys exploring creative aspects of music including listening, arranging, composing, and recording. He enjoys helping others scratch their own musical itch no matter how humble their ambitions may be!
Rusty’s students have had some great successes. Here are select student achievements:
WAMI Award recipients (1989); Several Wis School Music Assoc Composition Contest winners in various styles – vocal, instrumental, classical, and contemporary categories 1982-2014
Co-Piloted WI DPI “Collaborative Composer in Electronic Residence” (Michael B Nelson – Prince, Cory Wong) for Fontana JK-8 music students 2012
author of Songwriting Magazine’s “25 of the Best Books for Songwriters” 2023
TV/Movie music composition/arranging (“American Idol”, “Dancing with the Stars”)
Hollywood feature composer “Elysium” and “Black Hat”
founder “Samply” music production software creation company
Video game soundtrack composition for Ubisoft, FromSoftware, and Blizzard companies
various songs/albums currently available on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, etc.
Courses offered:
Doing Music From the Inside Out 101
Doing Music From the Inside Out 102
Rock’n’Roll’s Golden Years: An EarObics Class from Buddy Holly to Woodstock
Just Playing: Free Music Class!
Songwriting
Ear-Obics!
Sound Safari: Developing Musical Awareness Through Listening
