A musician with a melodious, compositional pen and trumpet sound that has been called gorgeous. The last few years have been years of achievement in performances and recording with local and national honors. In autumn of 2019, the album Blueprints Figure One: Frameworks was released that had tracks which were chosen for a story from NPR’s Morning Edition. This volume and the second volume of music from the project that was released in September 2020 as Blueprints Figure Two: New Designs were each in consideration for a Grammy nomination. New Designs had recognition with reviews and accompanied by several radio interviews and global radio features notably in France and Germany. Closer to home in Chicago Markus was selected as a representative of Chicago Music for the 2020 Year of Chicago Music. A trumpeter from the age of nine, post-secondary musical studies took him to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Berklee College of Music, and the University of New Orleans where Rutz graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.