Susan Lewis
Arts & Culture Senior ProducerAs senior producer of arts and culture, Susan writes and produces stories about music and the arts. She’s host and producer of WRTI’s TIME IN online interview series, and producer of The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert series, to which she also contributes weekly intermission interviews. She’s also been a regular host of WRTI’s Live from the Performance Studio sessions.
In her more than 15 years at WRTI, Susan has interviewed a wide range of leading artists including conductors and composers: Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Simon Rattle, Wynton Marsalis, Marin Alsop, and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Christoph Eshenbach, Hannibal Locumbe, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jennifer Higdon, Donald Nally, John Adams, Valerie Coleman, Mason Bates; instrumentalists and vocalists: Yo-Yo Ma, Lang Lang, Itzak Perlman, Helene Grimaud, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Sharon Isbin, Andre Watts, Mark O’Connor, Angel Blue, Lawrence Brownlee, Jason Vieaux, Sarah Chang, and groundbreaking ensembles, including Imani Winds, PRISM Quartet, LA Guitar Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, and The Crossing, as well as people from the world of literature, theater and fine arts, including architect Frank Gehry, actors Dule Hill, Anna Deveare Smith, and playwrights Terry Teachout and the late Terrence McNally.
Susan came to radio with a background in journalism, speechwriting, and law, which she practiced in New York City; she also taught entertainment law at Rutgers Law School in Camden. A former freelance writer and columnist for Philadelphia Magazine, she’s also the author of Reinventing Ourselves after Motherhood and a book of essays titled, What is a Kiss, Anyway?
She lives in suburban Philadelphia with her husband, goldendoodle, and whichever of her four grown kids pop in to visit.
-
Acclaimed mandolin virtuoso Caterina Lichtenberg records, teaches and tours the world. Ahead of her performance with The Chamber Orchestra of…
-
A self-described "research geek," classical violinist Rachel Barton Pine has a passion for discovering new repertoire and turning kids on to classical…
-
February 18, 2019. Between 1974 and 1978, a series of new recordings highlighted symphonic and other orchestral works by Black composers written over two…
-
Acclaimed as "strikingly virtuosic" (Boston Musical Intelligencer) and "what triumph looks like" (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Imani Winds has forged its…
-
Fans of HBO's Game of Thrones know him as sword master Syrio Forel, who trains the young Arya Stark in the deadly art. Actor Miltos Yerolemou is also…
-
Watch and Listen: Cellist Christine Lamprea and Pianist Navah Perlman Play Schumann, Debussy at WRTIA winner of Astrals' 2013 National Auditions and the Sphinx Competition, Colombian-American cellist Christine Lamprea has earned acclaim for her "supreme…
-
The African-American patriot Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1794, and led the congregation of Bethel AME in Philadelphia…
-
February 4, 2019. Trained as a classical violinist, Rachel Barton Pine grew up listening to the blues, and one day was thrilled to discover the two genres…
-
January 28, 2019. We're adding some sunshine to the darkness of winter with this classical album of the week: American composer Morten Laurdisen's Light…
-
Where cabaret meets classical, the mixed-media company ENAensemble tells stories through staged theatrical performances, using film, cabaret, classical…