Luke Rinderknecht

Luke Rinderknecht is a percussionist who plays any instrument that can be struck, brushed, scraped, tapped, or shaken. He has performed with chamber ensembles and orchestras across four continents in world class venues like New York’s Carnegie Hall, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and the Paris Opera House, among others, and in clubs, art galleries, recital halls, and museums. He has performed on baroque, jazz fusion, orchestral, and new music recordings which have received seven Grammy nominations, with two wins. He is on the faculty of the Bowdoin International Music Festival, coaching and performing chamber music every summer since 2010.

Luke made his debut as a concerto soloist playing Paul Creston’s Concertino for Marimba with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall in 2001. He has also performed percussion concertos by Avner Dorman with the CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra and the Rogue Valley Symphony, and marimba concertos with the Jacksonville (IL) Symphony and the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony. He has performed in the percussion sections of many wonderful orchestras, including The Cleveland Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Firelands Symphony, Akron Symphony, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, and the Orchestra of St Luke’s. He has performed as timpanist with CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, The Knights Chamber Orchestra, The Metropolis Ensemble, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra. But Luke is most active as a chamber musician, most recently touring Europe with the No Exit New Music Ensemble, performing new works by an international consortium of composers calling themselves The Collective.

Luke received his Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from Juilliard, where he studied with Daniel Druckman, Gordon Gottlieb, and Greg Zuber, and was the 2005 recipient of the Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in music.