About Susan
Susan is an award-winning mezzo soprano, at home on the concert platform, operatic stage and in recording studios for film, TV and video game scores.
Since winning the National Mozart Singing Competition, Susan’s career has taken her to major venues worldwide. She has given vocal and piano recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and St. John, Smith’s Square, has performed at Glyndebourne, Bayreuth, Wexford and Aldeburgh Festivals, the Walton Trust, Ischia, and toured Handel’s Messiah in Mexico.
Susan has broadcast for BBC Radio 3, Norwegian Radio and has freelanced with the BBC Singers. In 2019 she featured on ITV’s Endeavour as the tragic opera diva in Matthew Slater’s TV opera La Sposa del Demonio.
Recent engagements include the world premiere of Nicholas Smith’s Chinese choral work Love, Friendship & Longing in Cadogan Hall, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in Queen Elizabeth Hall, Mozart’s Requiem in Cadogan Hall and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle in Dorchester Abbey.
For cinema and TV, Susan has collaborated with composer Stephen Baysted on scores for director Phil Grabsky’s feature films: The Impressionists and the man who made them; Renoir: Revered and Reviled; I, Claude Monet and The Young Picasso. Susan was solo vocalist and pianist on video games soundtracks for Project Cars; Project Cars 2 and 3; Runescape and Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed.
With pianist Ann Martin-Davis, the duo commissioned song-cycles from Graham Fitkin, Howard Skempton and Gabriel Jackson which they toured for major UK music and poetry festivals. Specially commissioned Mexican artwork for their project Mr. James’s Garden premiered in Mexico City with UK performances in Henley and Petworth Festivals.
At the start of the 2021 Lockdown Susan wrote the song Hold on Tight which she performed and recorded with Guy Fletcher from Dire Straits, and Caroline Dale (cello) raising money for NHS Charities Together.
Susan studied singing with Margaret Kingsley at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio and piano with Clifford Benson and Phyllis Sellick.
She lives near the sea in West Sussex with her husband, composer Stephen Baysted.
