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SUSAN CLEARMAN
(composer, pianist, accordionist and organist)
is a native of Florida, and
earned a degree in music composition at Florida State University,
graduating cum laude. She studied composition under Dr.
John Boda and piano performance under Leonard Mastrogiacomo. In
the following 25 years in Atlanta, she was active as a freelance
pianist, accordionist and organist. In addition to area recitals,
musical theater, folk fests, wedding and convention engagements,
she performed in Ireland, Scotland, Israel, the West Indies,
Canada, and across the United States. In 1986 she was featured
accordionist with the Atlanta Ballet in New York City. Between
2004-2007 she took a sabbatical to study music orchestration in
Boston, MA, and now has settled in Highlands, NC. While she
continues to be in demand as a performer, Ms. Clearman is gaining
new recognition for her expanding career as a composer.
Performer
As solo accordionist, Susan J. Clearman specializes in American standards as well as
traditional music from around the globe, including Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany,
Italy, Israel, Mexico, Russia and Scandinavia. Her
Bavarian Flavors
group keeps busy in the fall with Oktoberfests, playing polkas,
marches and schottisches. Audiences are serenaded by
Amiata
with romantic Italian ballads and rollicking tarantellas.
Oy, Klezmer!
features Ms. Clearman in plaintive folksongs and spirited bulgars
of Eastern Europe.
The romance of French cafés and countryside charms listeners
in the music of
Les Flaveurs.
Ms. Clearman's solo piano work ranges from Classical styles to popular music from the
1940s onward, Broadway showtunes and standards. Her group
DixieRag
revels in the bodacious improvizations and
syncopations of early 20th-century America with music of Scott Joplin,
Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, and others.
Composer
Ms. Clearman's eclectic tastes in classical, ethnic and popular styles
are also reflected in her compositions, both vocal and instrumental.
Springs in the Desert,
for solo organ, features Gregorian chant, Klezmer and Celtic elements.
It was commissioned by St. Anne Church of Rochester, New York and
premiered by organist Brink Bush. Two other organists later
performed the piece in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics.
"Drop Thy Still Dews of
Quietness"
for unison chorus and piano has been performed in churches from
Massachusetts to Georgia to Iona, Scotland and was read at the
2003 national convention of the American Choral Directors Association
[NY, NY]. In 2006, Episcopal Divinity School's [Cambridge, MA]
commencement week festivities featured Ms. Clearman's
Temple Slip Jig & Reel for organ and bodhran,
Bessarabica for mixed string and wind quartet, and
Breathing Space for soprano, horn and piano.
Her piano piece
The Pepperoni Rag, has pleased crowds live
in Boston and on radio in Atlanta. The Longy Chamber Orchestra
of Cambridge, MA read her orchestral work-in-progress,
The New Incarnation in 2007. Ms. Clearman has been
a member of ASCAP since 1993.
Other works include the
Cornycopia Rag
and the hispanic
Nostalgía
for piano; the modal
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
for violin and piano;
Spirited Away by the Four Winds
for woodwind quartet; and
"He is Gentle and Lowly in Heart"
for mixed chorus and organ.
OTHER LINKS RELATED TO SUSAN J. CLEARMAN:
Please click on the chosen subject in the list below:
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Music
by Susan J. Clearman
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Flavors
... a list of Susan's various bands
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Savory Press,
which publishes Ms. Clearman's music.
How to contact SUSAN J. CLEARMAN:
E-mail:
savory@luxnova.com
Savory Press
Highlands, NC & Atlanta, GA USA
Telephone: (828) 526-2078, (770) 441-2373
Copyright © 1999 - 2008 Susan J. Clearman. All Rights Reserved.
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