Susan Botti - Composer/Singer
As a composer and performer, Susan Botti's eclectic background and experiences are reflected in her music. Theater and the visual arts play a formative role in the aesthetic of her work. Her musical explorations have encompassed traditional, improvisational and non-classical composition and singing styles.
Botti is the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Rome Prize, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Fromm Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, NY Foundation for the Arts, The Greenwall Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, and ASCAP. She was the third Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra. In many cases, Botti is the vocal soloist as well as composer of her works. Collaboration is of special interest – often, her projects evolve from artistic partnerships (including musicians from the NY Philharmonic and The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; soloists such as soprano, Lucy Shelton; the poet Linda Gregerson; and theater designer Leslie Taylor).
Susan in Parma, Italy
In addition to performing her own vocal works, Botti specializes in the performance of contemporary music of diverse styles. She has worked directly with composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Matthias Pintscher, Paul Chihara, Toshio Hosokawa, Linda Dusman, Eliot Britton, Rahilia Hasanova, Lois V. Vierk, and Wes York. For over a decade, composer/conductor Tan Dun created several major works highlighting her vocal and theatrical talents, including the role of "Water" in his opera, Marco Polo (Sony Classical).