About Susan

Susan is a graduate of the UMKC Conservatory of Music (BM), the Cincinnati College Conservatory (MM) and attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.  Her experience in flute performing and teaching spans over 38 years.  She has taught at the Cincinnati School for the Performing Arts, the UMKC Conservatory, and Pittsburgh State University and from her home in Overland Park, Kansas. Her students have been featured soloists for their own school bands and orchestras and various prestigious summer music camps, as well as the Kansas City Youth Symphony. They have been KMEA, Missouri and Kansas District and All State principal players, and become music majors and professors. Besides continuing her longtime studio in Overland Park, Kansas, she is the Adjunct Flute Professor at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas. Susan has performed for almost every type of musical venue including for The Who, many Theater League productions, as a soloist with the Kansas City Symphony, the former Kansas City Camerata, and the NewEar Contemporary Ensemble (for which she is also a co-founder). She has been a featured performing guest for Cincinnati Public Radio, a recurrent guest for NPR’s “One Small Step” and was recently presented with the 2024 Russell Berlin Award for Excellence in Music Education by the Kansas City Youth Symphony. She is an ongoing member and past board member of the Kansas City Flute Association, and a member of the Kansas Flute Society, the Chicago Flute Club, and the National Flute Association. Susan has been married for 34 years, and has twin boys who are both recent graduates of the KU’s Law School. She has been an active substitute teacher in the Blue Valley School District, a volunteer for Church of the Resurrection’s Youth Group, and enjoys nature, friends, snow skiing and competitive tennis when she is not a busy homemaker.  She and her husband both started the “It’s a Racquet” tennis fundraisers, pre-Covid, that raised over $17,000 for local mental health organizations.