RUSH, Tracey

Tracey Rush is founder and former Executive Director of the Northeast Iowa School of Music in Dubuque, Iowa. She earned a BS in Music Education from Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina, where she was a composition student of Dwight Gustafson, and has her MM from the University of Northern Iowa. Rush taught music in the Dubuque Community School District for 18 years and currently teaches at Tri-State Christian School as well as composition at Emmaus Bible College. She served as principal violist with the Dubuque Symphony for many years, where she also served as Education Coordinator for 5 years and head librarian for 14 years.

Rush served as Composer-in-Residence of the Dubuque Symphony’s 1996-97 season, when four of her works were performed during that season including the commissioned “Spirit of Freedom.” A rousing concert fanfare, this piece was chosen to be performed at the MENC 56th National In-service, April 1998, in Phoenix, Arizona. The Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Nicholas Palmer, performed "Spirit of Freedom" at the Kentucky governor's inaugural in December 1999. Her “Angels in the Snow” has been conducted by Erich Kunzel and the Naples Philharmonic, as well as many other orchestras around the country. She has had over 25 commissions, and her educational works appear on festival and preferred music lists nation-wide, including Texas and Virginia. “The Butterfly Garden” received the Francis J. Pyle Award in 1999. She was also a finalist in several states for the American Composers Forum “Continental Harmony Project.”