Teaching

Whether coaching chamber music, leading a solfège class, or presiding over her weekly piano masterclass, Susan’s energy and enthusiasm for teaching is joyously contagious. Equally at home in front of the classroom or in the studio with her individual piano students, Susan’s teaching career has covered an enormous range. Although the majority of her nearly thirty years in education has been devoted to teaching at the college level, she has also taught piano and musicianship classes to students ranging in age from four to almost ninety.

Among the formative influences in her teaching, Susan became interested in the study of eurhythmics, a musicianship training program that integrates movement, solfège, and improvisation. During the time she was pursuing her Master of Music degree at Ithaca College, she was equally immersed in the eurhythmics teacher training program, leading to her attainment of the License in the Eurhythmics of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. In her subsequent appointment to the faculty at Ithaca College, while she taught theory and aural skills, collaborative piano, and applied music, Susan also taught eurhythmics. Including Dalcroze eurhythmics in her Music in Early Childhood Education courses at SUNY/Nassau, Susan also has given numerous Dalcroze workshops and clinics (Oakland University, West Liberty University, Rock Valley College, the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center, to name just a few), in tandem with her concerts. This discipline has continued to inform all aspects of her work.

In addition to serving on the faculty of Ithaca College, Susan has also taught at Concordia College and Conservatory and the Westminster Choir College and Conservatory of Rider University. Susan is a professor of music and the Director of Chamber Ensembles at SUNY/Nassau Community College, where she has taught for more than twenty years. While doing so, she has also had the pleasure of presenting masterclasses, clinics, and lecture-demonstrations in many of the places where she has concertized, including such places as Steinway Hall, Brevard College, and Moravian College. This synergy between teaching and playing gives Susan the balance that, she believes, makes her a little bit better at both.