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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WRTI's Susan Lewis looks at the history of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and how it continues to serve both the scientific community…
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Jim Cotter speaks with James Conlon as the music director of LA Opera and the Ravinia Festival prepares to guest conduct The Philadelphia Orchestra.Susan…
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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): A Look at His Life and His LegacyPhiladelphia, PA – WRTI's Susan Lewis profiles the Master of Baroque! The great German…
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Jim Cotter speaks with Benjamin Beilman ahead of his Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Recital debut. The young violinist has the potential to be "the…
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Philadelphia, PA – WRTI's Susan Lewis considers George Frideric Handel's iconic 18th-century oratorio and its interpretation in dance as the Pennsylvania…
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Jim Cotter speaks with James Gaffigan. The young American conductor, with a growing reputation at home and abroad, conducts The Philadelphia Orchestra on…
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Popular composer George Gershwin bridged the worlds of classical music and jazz. WRTI's Susan Lewis considers Gershwin and his musical legacy as The…
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Jim Cotter speaks with Philadelphia Singers Music Director David Hayes ahead of the group's revival of Randall Thompson's under-appreciated Requiem.Susan…
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Concert band music has its roots in the military, dating back to the 1700s. However, over the last century, more composers have written explicitly for…
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Jim Cotter speaks with the renowned German pianist Christian Zacharias.Susan Lewis takes a look at The Philadelphia Wind Symphony. The recently formed…