Susan Grace
Festival Music director; piano
Artist-in-Residence, Senior Lecturer in Music, Colorado College
Quattro Mani Piano Duo; 2005 Grammy Nominee
Grammy nominated pianist and Steinway Artist, SUSAN GRACE has performed solo and chamber recitals, and has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States, Europe, the former Soviet Union, Korea, India and China. She has also performed in the Aspekte Festival in Salzburg, St Paul Chamber Orchestra's new-music series Engine 408, Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Grand Teton Festival, the Cape Cod Music Festival, Festival Mozaic, Concordia Chamber Players, Music at Oxford, and the Helmsley Festival in England. She is a member of Quattro Mani, an internationally acclaimed two-piano ensemble with NY pianist Steven Beck. Recent performances include CUNY Graduate Center, Bargemusic, National Sawdust, Subculture and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall in NY, La Labortoire Cambridge, Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Alabama and Austin Symphonies. Grace has recorded for Bridge Records, the Belgium National Radio, WFMT in Chicago, the Society of Composers, Wilson Audio, Klavier International and Klavier Music Productions. Her recording on the Bridge label of Stefan Wolpe's violin and piano music was listed in the London Sunday Times as one of the top ten Contemporary recordings of 2015 and was also included on the Fanfare "Critics Want List 2016". Bridge Records recently released 4 new CDs by Quattro Mani featuring American and European composers; Lounge Lizards and Re-Structures in 2018 as well as Stefan Wolpe's music for two pianos and the Poul Ruders Edition, Volume 15 released in 2019, all to critical acclaim. In July of 2023, Quattro Mani released a new CD, Hallelujah Junction, which received a dazzling review by Giorgio Koukl.
Grace is associate chair, artist-in-residence and senior lecturer in music at Colorado College. She is also music director of the renowned Colorado College Summer Music Festival, now in its 40th season. She was awarded the Christine S. Johnson Professorship of Music from 2014-16. In June 2014, Mayor Steve Bach and the city of Colorado Springs presented Ms. Grace with the Spirit of the Springs award for her work with the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. Last year Grace received the Jane Cauvel Cultivating Collaboration and Community-building Presidential Award at Colorado College. Grace was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Small Ensemble Performance category.