Marcus Tsutakawa is the Music director

Music director

A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the co-ordinator of the musical ensembles in a university or college , the head bandmaster of a military band, the head...

 at Garfield High School (Seattle, Washington)

Garfield High School (Seattle, Washington)

James A. Garfield High School is a public high school in the Seattle Public Schools district of Seattle, Washington, USA.Located along 23rd Avenue between E. Alder and E. Jefferson Streets in Seattle's urban Central District, Garfield draws students from all over the city...

.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Mr. Tsutakawa began his teaching career as a Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

, but became the Orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 director in 1985. He is known to many by the nickname 'Tsut'. Over the years he has worked very closely with the award winning Jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 Band Director Clarence Acox to create one of the best high school music programs in the world. In fact, the Garfield Symphony Orchestra won the "Best Orchestra" Award from the Down Beat

Down Beat

Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...

 Magazine in 2007.
In addition to his duties at Garfield, Tsutakwawa is also involved with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras

Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras

Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras is the largest youth symphony organization in the United States, the eighth oldest and among the most distinguished....

, which have toured in Europe, Asia and the United States. In 1992, Mr. Tsutakawa received the Prix de Martell award, from Martell Cognac, Int'l, recognizing "Champions of Classical Music" (other recipients include Gerard Schwarz

Gerard Schwarz

Gerard Schwarz is an American conductor. He was music director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 2011.In 2007 Schwarz was named music director of the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, having served as principal conductor since 2005...

, Sir Georg Solti, and others).

Marcus Tsutakawa is the youngest of 4 children of George

George Tsutakawa

George Tsutakawa , sculptor and painter, was born in Seattle, Washington. Tsutakawa spent much of his childhood in Okayama, Japan. He returned to Seattle at the age of 16, where he attended Broadway High School before earning a BFA at the University of Washington. One of his early mentors was...

and Ayame Tsutakawa. He has two daughters.

External links

• Friends of Garfield Orchestra