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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A top-tier oboist is not only musically gifted, but also a skilled craftsman. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, the sound of the instrument relies on a…
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Coming up on Sunday, September 15th, WRTI's Sunday radio broadcast of The Philadelphia Orchestra In Concert features, on the podium, Englishman Simon…
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Barbara Hannigan is a world-renowned vocalist at home in many genres. She's known especially for her performances of contemporary music. This Sunday,…
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The clarinet is a versatile woodwind instrument that has evolved from its 18th-century beginnings. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, classical composers have…
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Music lives in South Philadelphia through The Jazz Sanctuary, an organization that takes jazz into to houses of worship and other nontraditional venues.…
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Classical music soloists must spend a lot of time practicing their instruments. But some stars are connecting with fans in ways that reach beyond the…
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The musical Hair opened on Broadway, and 2001: A Space Odyssey was at the movies. It was also in 1968 that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were…
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On this week's Philadelphia Orchestra In Concert broadcast, the Philadelphians pays special tribute to their former music director, Wolfgang Sawallisch,…
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Today, J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are among the most popular pieces from the Baroque era. WRTI’s Susan Lewis explores the mystery in the story of…
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Music lives, as it has for decades, on Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square. And now - as the Curtis Institute of Music works with a company that distributes…