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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Jim Cotter speaks with Conrad Anker. His 2007 expedition to Mt. Everest to retrace the steps of the 1920s British explorer George Mallory is the subject…
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Jim Cotter discusses the Philadelphia Orchestra's finances with CEO Alison Vulgamore and CFO Mario Mestichelli.Susan Lewis explores the Philadelphia…
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Jim Cotter speaks with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia's executive director Peter Gistelinck, who has just renewed his contract for five years. The…
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As BalletX turns 5 years old, Susan Lewis considers the contemporary ballet company and its summer program.We listen back to Jim Cotter's recent interview…
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Since the early '60s, New Yorkers Dorothy and Herb Vogel have acquired a massive collection of contemporary art, using his income as a postal worker,…
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Jim Cotter speaks with legendary pop artist Claes Oldenburg. The creator of two of Philadelphia's most iconic works of public art, he's been commissioned…
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PRISM Quartet--BlobFest--Philly's Historical Interpreters--German Soc. of PA's Hardy Von AuenmuellerAs PRISM Quartet celebrates its 25th anniversary, David Patrick Stearns profiles the all-saxophone group that has built a repertoire of more than 100…
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Philadelphia, PA – Late 19th-century French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir worked until his death in 1919. WRTI's Susan Lewis explores LATE RENOIR, an…
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Susan Lewis considers art collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel and their gifts of 50 works to museums in each of the 50 states. Susan also looks at…
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Jim Cotter speaks with Yannick Nezet-Seguin - the new music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra - and gets reaction to his appointment from orchestra…