Fine and Applied Arts Directory

Rodney Mueller has a long standing relationship with the Parkland College Orchestra. A member of the cello section since 2003, Mueller was appointed the director of the Parkland College Orchestra in 2015. He previously taught in the Champaign Unit 4 Schools for 19 years. Mueller was Orchestra Director at Centennial High School and Jefferson Middle School, as well as String Teacher in several elementary schools.

Mueller also taught strings and directed orchestras in the public schools of DePere, Wisconsin and Grinnell, Iowa. He served as a music teacher, orchestra and band director, and administrator on the fine arts faculty of Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada. He spent the 1982-83 school year teaching and conducting in Sheffield, England as part of the Fulbright/U.S. Dept. of Education teacher exchange program.

Mueller holds music and music education degrees from Wheaton College (BA), Northern Michigan University (BME and MM), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (EdD).

While in Illinois, Mueller has served as a conductor with the Sangamon Valley Youth Orchestras, and cello teacher and conductor with Illinois Summer Youth Music orchestra camps. He has been a festival and contest adjudicator and clinician. He has reviewed and written for the American String Teacher and presented clinics on the CD-ROM Visualized Vibrato for Violin and Viola.

In his retirement, Mueller continues to make his home in Champaign with his wife Linnea, a studio piano teacher. Together they are active worship musicians at Stratford Park Bible Chapel. He has established a private string studio and been a student teacher supervisor for the University of Illinois School of Music and Eastern Illinois University Department of Student Teaching. He continues to clinic and adjudicate in school settings.