Meet Our Talent

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Barbara has a Masters in Music Education from the University of Illinois. She taught band, 4th thru 9th in Saginaw, Michigan for 25 years before retiring in 1991. Ms. Bruske is an active adjudicator, performer, and composer. She is a member of SASSE saxophone quartet and the Saginaw Eddy Band, and performs on keyboard for various social functions.

After retiring she formed Watchdog Music after recognizing the need for more varied and superior quality solo/ensemble music for the junior high/middle school age group.

Richard has a Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Wisconsin. He studied French Horn with Verne Reynolds and String Bass with Felix Fassbender.

After serving as Graduate Assistant arranger for the University of Wisconsin Marching Band he continued to write for Drum and Bugle Corps and Marching Bands in the Midwest. After a tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Korea, he taught instrumental music in Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan. Following a tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Korea, he taught instrumental music in Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan.

 The last 20 years were spent at Arthur Hill High School in Saginaw. He is now retired and co-publisher of Watchdog Music and has a number of ensemble and band works in publication.

Jeff has been an active jazz pianist and arranger for many years. He received his B.M. and M.M. from Michigan State University, and has contributed dozens of arrangements to the libraries of both the Spartan Marching Band and the Jazz Ensemble.

He has also written arrangements for both bands and orchestras at several other universities and high schools throughout the nation. He has performed with many of the top jazz artists in Michigan, and has played with the Woody Herman Orchestra, Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, and Johnny Trudell. He has been a pianist for the Greater Lansing Symphony, the Battle Creek Symphony, and has backed such artists as Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, Nancy Wilson, The Four Freshman, and Bob Newhart. He is a retired band director of DeWitt Public Schools and has been a jazz keyboard instructor at Central Michigan University.

As Professor of Saxophone at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, John Nichol is an active performer in both classical music and jazz and a well known adjudicator and guest conductor.

He is a member of the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and has performed with Hal Linden, Jim Nabors, Rich Little, Maureen McGovern, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations and Carol Channing. John has performed by invitation at four World Saxophone Congresses and at the Montreux Jass Festival in Montreux, Switzerland and the North Sea Jazz Festival at The Hague, Netherlands.

He is host and organizer of the biannual Michigan Saxophone Ensemble which has expanded to over 100 saxophonists which has had performances by guest artists Frederick Hemke, Donald Sinta, Eugene Rousseau, and Claude De Langle.