Born in Bialystok, Poland, Marcelina Suchocka is the Principal Percussionist of the Sarasota Orchestra and Britt Festival Orchestra. Ms. Suchocka enjoys a diverse career spanning orchestral, chamber, new music, and solo playing. She was a fellow at the New World Symphony and has performed as an extra/substitute percussionist with the Chicago Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and Utah Symphony. She was also an Associate Percussionist with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Most recently Ms. Suchocka has spent summers as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. She was also a fellow at the Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra and Spoleto Festival. She has been the recipient of many awards including first prize in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Young Artist Concerto Competition, Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and Polish National Alliance's Young Artist Award.

Ms. Suchocka has performed as soloist with the Chicago Symphony and at Carnegie Hall as a winner of the NPR's YouTube Big Break competition. She is one of the founding members of Excelsis, an all-female percussion quartet based in New York City. She is also a founding member of Pathos Trio, which is a NYC based group whose focus is to play new commissioned pieces and mix styles of music. She has also performed as percussionist with the Mark Morris Dance Group as a fellow at Tanglewood, where she collaborated with the great dancer and choreographer, Mark Morris.

Ms. Suchocka is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music for both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She studied with Christopher Lamb, Duncan Patton, She e Wu, Kyle Zerna, Patsy Dash and Douglas Waddell.