Artist in Residence

Susan Ellinger began studying piano at the age of four. Having learned to read music and the alphabet at about the same time, playing classical music was as natural for her as reading a book, riding a bike or swimming in her local creek. As a native growing up in Vermont, she balanced her time outside the house playing in the woods and inside the house practicing her Steinway piano.

Susan has performed extensively as both a soloist and chamber musician, presenting recitals at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium, The Caramoor Music Center in upstate New York, Harvard University, The Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, The Tanglewood Music Festival and the Taos School of Music. She has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Peabody Conservatory of Music Orchestra, in regular concerts with The Chelsea Chamber Players in New York City, and as a featured soloist in a series of concerts with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra with conductor Marin Alsop. Ms. Ellinger has won top prizes both as a soloist and chamber musician at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Manhattan School of Music and was awarded the National Baldwin Junior Keyboard Achievement Award at age thirteen presenting a solo concert in Washington D.C. for the Music Teachers Association of America.

As a chamber musician, Ms. Ellinger has studied and performed with members of the Juilliard, American, Guarneri and Muir String Quartets. Her teachers have included Leon Fleisher and Veda Kaplinsky at The Juilliard School of Music. An active performer of modern music, she appeared with the Manhattan Contemporary Ensemble premiering works by Bright Sheng, Rand Steiger and Tan Dun and has collaborated with modern hip hop artists, Labwaste (Thavius Beck and Subtitle), releasing a remix for the album Zwarte Achtegrond on One Cell Records.

Ms. Ellinger collaborates on film projects for directors in Los Angeles and her works have been screened at the South by Southwest Film Festival and the Montreal Just For Laughs Film Festival.

Susan currently resides in Paonia, CO and maintains an active teaching studio in the area.