William Joseph Susman, born August 29, 1960 in Chicago, is an American composer of concert and film music as well as an accomplished pianist. He belongs to the generation of American composers that came of age in the late twentieth century, received traditional academic training while remaining thoroughly engaged with popular music (in his case, jazz), and who went on to establish careers for themselves outside the academic establishment. Susman has written orchestral and chamber music for concert performance, as well as documentary film scores.

His first major work and earliest recognition was for Pentateuch for soprano, three choral groups and divisi orchestra which caught the attention of Earle Brown

Earle Brown

Earle Brown was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems...

 at the BMI awards in 1985. At Brown's recommendation, he received a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation. For his Fromm commission he composed Trailing Vortices (1986) for chamber orchestra which had performances at the Aspen Music festival as well as the Alicante and Gaudeamus music festivals both conducted by Ernest Bour

Ernest Bour

Ernest Bour was a French conductor. Born in Thionville, Moselle, Bour studied at both the University and the Conservatoire of Strasbourg...

. Trailing Vortices was inspired by photographs found in An Album of Fluid Motion

An Album of Fluid Motion

The book An Album of Fluid Motion is a collection of black-and-white photographs of flow visualizations for different types of fluid flows. These flows include:*Creeping flow*Laminar flow*Flow separation*Vortices*Fluid instability*Fluid turbulence...

by Milton Van Dyke

Milton Van Dyke

Milton Denman Van Dyke was Professor of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He was known for his work in fluid dynamics, especially with respect to the use of perturbation analysis in aerodynamics...

. He then applied the acoustical concepts of Shepard tone

Shepard tone

A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with the base pitch of the tone moving upward or downward, it is referred to as the Shepard scale. This creates the auditory illusion of a tone that continually...

s and the studies of Jean Claude Risset  to create an "aural translation" of trailing vortices.

Music

His music is notable for how it integrates diverse influences spanning the western classical and jazz tradition to science and numerology. Rhythm plays a strong role in his compositions through musical devices such as the Afro-Cuban montuño, medieval hocket and isorhythm. The New York Times has described his music as ".. vivid, turbulent, rich-textured..." and The Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange said his album Music for Moving Pictures is "A flawless gem...of rare beauty and consummate aesthetic discretion".

In addition to performances of his music in the U.S. and Europe, his compositions have been featured on radio such as New Sounds on WNYC

WNYC

WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...

, Echoes

Echoes (radio program)

Echoes is a daily two-hour music radio program hosted by John Diliberto featuring a soundscape of ambient, space, electronica, and New Age music. The program features in-depth artist interviews and intimate "living room" performances. Interview subjects have included Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel,...

on NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

 and Concertzender in the Netherlands. At the 2005 Moondance Film Festival, he won the Seahorse/Best Score Award for Oil on Ice, and for Fate of the Lhapa in 2007. At the 2006 Park City Film Music Festival, he won the Gold Medal for Excellence/Jury Choice for Oil on Ice, and the Gold Medal for Excellence/Audience Choice for Native New Yorker

Native New Yorker (film)

Native New Yorker is the title of the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Short by Steve Bilich.Filmed with a 1924 hand-crank Cine-Kodak camera, Shaman Trail Scout 'Coyote' takes a journey which transcends time, from Inwood Park , down a native trail , into lower Manhattan Native New...

, which also won best documentary short at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival - New York City.

He scored When Medicine Got it Wrong which premiered in May 2009 for PBS. Another score Balancing Acts: A Jewish Theatre in the Soviet Union for the Chagall exhibit at the Jewish Museum New York, ran November 2008 – March 2009 and screened at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum April – September 2009. These scores feature grammy-nominated cellist Joan Jeanrenaud

Joan Jeanrenaud

Joan Jeanrenaud, née Dutcher , is an American cello player. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, she played with the Kronos Quartet from 1978 until 1999, when, after a sabbatical, she left to pursue a solo career and collaborations with other artists, in part due being diagnosed with multiple...

.

A one hour showcase of his music for small ensembles was featured at The Stone (music space) in NYC including a live performance to a screening of the Tribeca winner Native New Yorker

Native New Yorker (film)

Native New Yorker is the title of the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Short by Steve Bilich.Filmed with a 1924 hand-crank Cine-Kodak camera, Shaman Trail Scout 'Coyote' takes a journey which transcends time, from Inwood Park , down a native trail , into lower Manhattan Native New...

with the Ebony String Quartet and Demetrius Spaneas on multi-winds.

Recent premieres in April and May 2009 include Stas Venglevski performing Zydeco Madness for accordion solo and Three Different Keyboards for accordion, marimba, and piano in Chicago by accessible contemporary music, Zydeco Madness (To the Forgotten of Hurricane Katrina) by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, and a work for string orchestra, Snow Lion of Peace, performed for His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama during his visit to San Francisco. His work The Starry Dynamo performed by the chamber ensemble Piccola Accademia degli Specchi

Piccola Accademia degli Specchi

Piccola Accademia degli Specchi is a chamber ensemble in Rome, central Italy. founded in late 2000 by Giovanni Rosati and Matteo Sommacal, specializing in the performance of contemporary classical music, with particular attention to the so-called minimalist and postminimalist experiences...

 was featured in October 2009 in Rome as part of the contemporary music festival Nuovi Spazi Musicali.

Influences

His earliest orchestral works such as Openings, Pentateuch and Trailing Vortices pay tribute and demonstrate an affinity to the explorations of Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...

 and György Ligeti

György Ligeti

György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...

. His interest in algorithmic composition can be attributed also to his composition teacher Herbert Brun

Herbert Brun

Herbert Brün was a composer and pioneer of electronic and computer music. Born in Berlin, Germany, he taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1962 until he retired, several years before his death.-Career:...

 at the University of Illinois and John Chowning

John Chowning

John M. Chowning is an American composer, musician, inventor, and professor best known for his work at Stanford University and his invention of FM synthesis while there.-Contribution:...

 at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). His early use of microtonal composition was influenced by another University of Illinois teacher Ben Johnston

Ben Johnston

Benjamin Burwell Johnston, Jr. is a composer of contemporary music in the just intonation system.-Johnston's music:...

 as well as Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...

.

Other influences that make their appearance early on include numerology

Numerology

Numerology is any study of the purported mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems and traditions and beliefs...

 in works such as Pentateuch and the Fibonacci number series in Twisted Figures and Uprising. He also studied piano with Pauline Lindsey (a student of Artur Schnabel), Steve Behr (pianist with Louis Armstrong) and Alan Swain.

Awards

• ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Award for Trailing Vortices
• ASCAP Foundation Raymond Hubbell Award for Movement for Orchestra
• BMI Student Composer Award for Pentateuch
• Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard for Trailing Vortices
• Gaudeamus International Musicweek for Trailing Vortices
• Pare Lorentz Award - International Documentary Association for Oil on Ice
• KUCYNA/ALEA III International Composers Competition for Twisted Figures
• Percussive Arts Society for Exchanges
• Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Short for Native New Yorker

Orchestra

• Snow Lion of Peace (2009)
• Zydeco Madness: To the Forgotten of Huricaine Katrina (2006)
• Angels of Light (1991)
• Uprising (1989)
• Trailing Vortices (1986)
• Pentateuch (1984)
• Openings (1982)
• Movement for Orchestra (1980)

Chamber Ensemble

• Camille (2010)
• Native New Yorker
  Native New Yorker (film)
  Native New Yorker is the title of the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Short by Steve Bilich.Filmed with a 1924 hand-crank Cine-Kodak camera, Shaman Trail Scout 'Coyote' takes a journey which transcends time, from Inwood Park , down a native trail , into lower Manhattan Native New...
  
    (2005)
• Three Different Keyboards (2001)
• The Starry Dynamo (1994)
• Exposé (1989)
• Twisted Figures (1987)
• Streamlines (1984)
• For Three Trombones (1983)

Vocal/Choral

• Eternal Light (2010)
• Scatter My Ashes (2009)
• Living These Seasons (2009)
• Moving in to an Empty Space (1992)
• Interlude (1984)
• Two Songs (1983)
• Elie (1983)
• Three Songs (1981)

Percussion

• Material Rhythms for percussion quartet (2010)
• Amores Montuños for flute & marimba (2008)
• Marimba Montuño for Joseph Gramley (2002)
• Floating Falling for cello and timpani (1987)
• Exchanges for percussion soloist and winds (1982)

String Quartet

• Zydeco Madness (2006)
• Patterns of Change (1997)
• Up to the Sky (1988)
• Streams (1984)

Solo and Duo

• Zydeco Madness for accordion (2005)
• Duo Montuño for clarinet & piano (2004)
• Duo Montuño for alto sax & piano (2004)
• Duo Montuño for viola and piano (2004)
• Motions of Return for flute & piano (1996)
• For Cello (1984)
• Halilah for viola (1983)
• Nnyl for trombone (1983)
• Turbulence for flute (1983)
• Violin Study (1983)

Electronic

• Waves for piano and computer-generated sound (version with notated piano part) (1982)
• Waves for Any number of improvisers and computer-generated sound (1982)

Film Music

• When Medicine Got It Wrong (2009)
• Balancing Acts: A Jewish Theater in the Soviet Union (2008)
• Making the Man (2007)
• Fate of the Lhapa (2007)
• Native New Yorker
  Native New Yorker (film)
  Native New Yorker is the title of the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Short by Steve Bilich.Filmed with a 1924 hand-crank Cine-Kodak camera, Shaman Trail Scout 'Coyote' takes a journey which transcends time, from Inwood Park , down a native trail , into lower Manhattan Native New...
  
   (2005)
• Oil on Ice (2004)
• Asphyxiating Uma (2002)
• Deep Under the Ice (2000) aka NASA Explores Under the Ice
• Daydream Believer (1998)
• Alaska's Arctic Wildlife (1997)
• Indonesia (1996)
• The Philippines (1996)
• Southern Africa Safari (1995)
• Discovering the Amazon and the Andes (1994)
• The Elephant Seals of Ano Nuevo (1994)
• Exploring Tropical Australia (1993)

Discography

• Music for Moving Picture Three film scores performed by Joan Jeanrenaud, Mira Stroika and William Susman
• Fate of the Lhapa Film score performed by Joan Jeanrenaud, Tsering Wangmo and William Susman
• Global Percussion Marimba Montuño included on Joseph Gramley's solo percussion album.
• Oil on Ice Film score performed by Joan Jeanrenaud, Adeline Peter Raboff and William Susman

Radio Archives Online

• Psychosounds - New Sounds, Broadcast on WNYC, 93.9 FM/820 AM, New York, 12 October 2010
• Small Ensembles, Patterned-Based Music - New Sounds, Broadcast on WNYC, 93.9 FM/820 AM, New York, 29 September 2010
• Tibetan Buddhist-Based Film Scores - New Sounds, Broadcast on WNYC, 93.9 FM/820 AM, New York, 15 November 2009
• Psychosounds - New Sounds, Broadcast on WNYC, 93.9 FM/820 AM, New York, 16 July 2009
• Small Ensembles, Patterned-Based Music - New Sounds, Broadcast on WNYC, 93.9 FM/820 AM, New York, 7 July 2009
• Tibetan Buddhist-Based Film Scores - New Sounds, Broadcast on WNYC, 93.9 FM/820 AM, New York, 13 November 2007
• Archive listings - Concertzender, numerous broadcasts spanning 2003 - 2010.

External links

• Susman Music - Official Website including audio files
• [ All Music Guide] - Biography for William Susman
• Classical Composers Database - Biography for William Susman
• William Susman Filmography - The Internet Movie Database
• Tribeca Film Festival - Program Notes, Native New Yorker, 2006
• The Austin Chronicle - M. Savlov, Two Towers, Six Years, and 16 Millimeters
• Global Percussion - Thomas Mallon, CD Album Program Notes and sound samples, 2006
• Youtube Channel - Susman Music Channel including live performances and film scores