Judy Ruks (piano)
Judy Ruks was born in 1980 in Oosterbeek, the Netherlands and began playing piano at the age of 7. She studied classical piano from 1998 till 2004 at the “Hogeschool voor de Kunsten” (Institute of the Arts) in Arnhem with Frank Peters and Frank van de Laar. During her studies she specialised in Lied-accompaniment and studied with Rudolf Jansen and Marien van Nieukerken. During her time as a student she formed a duo with singer Murni Suwetja. In 2004 she received her Masters Degree and was winner as a solo-pianist of the “Kunstnacht Music-prize”.
The tango affected her when she was young, but her dream became a reality when she began studying tango piano at the “Rotterdam Academy for World Music”. She studied there from 2002 till 2006 with Wim Warman and Gustavo Beytelmann. During this time she was pianist in Orquesta Típica OTRA, playing with this group in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and Buenos Aires.
Since 2007 she lives in Stuttgart and works as a tango-pianist, teacher and conductor. Besides the “Cuarteto Rotterdam” she is also pianist of the “Orquesta Típica Guardia Cadenera”, “Luis Borda Cuarteto”, “Café Tango Orquesta” in Stuttgart, the duo “Locas x el Tango” and besides she is conductor of the “Orquesta Atipica Stuttgart”. In Buenos Aires she studied with Andrès Linetzky, Adrián Enríquez, Cristián Zárate and Nicolás Ledesma.