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.
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Classical and Latin American music are flourishing in North Wales, PA, where professional chamber musicians share their music and culture with students… -
A Japanese violinist who garnered international fame in 1990 as the youngest winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition continues her high-profile solo career…
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A young Spanish conductor making his mark today has aimed to know a variety of ensembles, repertoires, and styles. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, he’s…
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Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, founded in 1874, is a largely volunteer chorus of about 140 members. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, its new artistic…
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George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is performed by orchestras everywhere. But not everyone has heard the original jazz band version, composed for a 1924…
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It’s Jazz Appreciation Month and WRTI is celebrating the local and national jazz greats who have shaped the music we enjoy today. WRTI’s Susan Lewis…
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How do music and movement relate in contemporary ballet? Music can be composed for dance moves, dance can be created for music, and sometimes they’re…
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A young conductor, trained in both his native Colombia and Vienna, now leads orchestras on two continents. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, culture,…
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Norman Lewis (1909 - 1979), a Harlem-born, African-American artist whose work spanned different styles and a range of subjects - including nature, the…
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J.S. Bach was born more than three centuries ago, yet contemporary musicians continue to mine riches from his music. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports,…
