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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Many great composers in history wrote for the bassoon. But in the last 70 years or so, the instrument has often been associated with one particular bouncy… -
The flute is one of the oldest musical instruments, with its earliest versions found thousands of years ago in different cultures. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis…
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A group of young musical and theater artists are making the case that a great opera experience doesn’t depend on staging in a grand hall, with elaborate…
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Early 20th-century Italian composer, pianist, and conductor Alfredo Casella promoted music of his compatriots. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, the…
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In 1929, an unusual work by a versatile 20th-century French composer premiered at the home of his wealthy patrons. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, this…
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As The Philadelphia Orchestra opens its new season in September 2014, the ensemble will have a new assistant conductor on board. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis…
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On Sunday August 24, 2014, WRTI broadcasts a Philadelphia Orchestra concert featuring a Haydn symphony that was first played in 1794. WRTI’s Susan Lewis…
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The Philadelphia Museum of Art is now showcasing plans to update and renovate its main building. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, the design is by…
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One of classical music’s superstars plays all over the world, appears on large and small screens, makes multiple recordings, and also conducts. As WRTI’s…
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Spanish conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, who died in June, conducted The Philadelphia Orchestra this past season. The program featured the music of…
