Susan L. Grace

Susan Grace Lecturer in Music and Artist in Residence
1988-

Education:
B.M., University of Iowa, 1973
M.A., University of Iowa, 1975

SUSAN GRACE has performed solo and chamber recitals, and has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States, Europe, the former Soviet Union, and China. She has, in addition, performed in numerous series and festivals, including the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Grand Teton Festival, Music at Oxford, and the Helmsley Festival in England. In January of 2003 she toured with the Goldnagle Duo in Munich and other venues in southern Germany as a piano trio. She joined them again in summer 2005 for festivals in Hungary. Ms. Grace and her husband, Michael, have toured with a concert titled Piano Music and Painting; these programs, which include slides of the paintings upon which the piano compositions are based, have been presented recently on numerous series, including those at Florida International University, Bucknell University, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, South Dakota State University, the Loveland Civic Music Association, and the University of Lueneburg, Germany. These programs have also been chosen for presentation at national meetings of the College Music Society and the American Musicological Society. In spring 2005 the American Embassy in India sponsored presentations by Ms. Grace and her husband of lecture/concerts on American piano music. Ms. Grace returned to India for another concert tour in the fall of 2006. As a collaborative artist, Ms. Grace has performed with cellist Janos Starker, violinists Martin Chalifour, Glenn Dicterow and Jose-Luis Garcia, clarinetist David Shifrin, soprano Martile Rowland and many other internationally known musicians.

Ms. Grace is artist-in-residence and lecturer in music at Colorado College, music director of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival and artistic director of the New Music Symposium. She performs frequently with pianist Alice Rybak as the acclaimed piano duo Quattro Mani. Their interest in 20th and 21st century repertoire has led to collaborations with such composers as George Crumb, Joan Tower, Bernard Rands, Paul Lansky, Jon Novacek and Poul Ruders, and to participation in contemporary music festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe. Quattro Mani made its New York debut in January, 2001 in Carnegie Recital Hall to a sold-out house. They were immediately re-engaged for the following season, and returned again in December, 2003. They performed on the same series in the 2005-06 season. Quattro Mani's first recording, A Game of Go, was released in November, 2000, by Klavier Music Productions; a CD of George Crumb's two-piano compositions was released in March, 2001, by Bridge Records. Both have received international and national acclaim. Quattro Mani’s recording of George Crumb’s Otherworldly Resonances, was listed by Amazon.com as one of the top ten classical recordings of 2004. Their most recent recording of the Poulenc, Bartok and Milhaud Concertos with the 2006 CC Summer Music Festival Orchestra has just been released by Bridge Records. Quattro Mani is included on the international roster of Steinway artists.

Grace has recorded for the Belgium National Radio, WFMT in Chicago, the Society of Composers, Wilson Audio, and Klavier International, Klavier Music Productions and Bridge Records. She performed on the 2006 Grammy nominated recording of George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children, which was included in the Best Small Ensemble Performance category.