Print Shortlink

Hellauer, Susan

She is a vocalist, trumpeter, Baroque guitarist, banjoist, recorder player, director and teacher born in Bronx, New York who studied for her music degree at City University’s Queens College.

She initially concentrated on the trumpet at college but after taking a strong interest in the vocal side of music from the Renaissance and medieval periods, she became a singer and took further degrees in the subject at Queens College and Columbia University.

Around 1986 she became a co-founder of the a cappella ensemble Anonymous 4 and with them she has recorded many award winning albums that have appeared on the classical album chart and performed in excess of 1,000 times.  Aside from being a vocalist with Anonymous 4 she is also a researcher of medieval music for them and performing with other ensembles she has featured as a soloist with the Harp Consort.

She is a member of the Board of Director of Early Music and in a teaching capacity she is on the faculty of Queen’s College’s Aaron Copeland School of Music in New York as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Music as well as directing its Collegium Musicum.  She regularly takes part in masterclasses and workshops as well as directing and creating performance residencies such as Chant Camp at various universities throughout the United States.

Recently she has worked in collaboration with the violinist Zafer Tawil and singer Aruna Sairam on the 2006 Spirit of Fes Festival of World Sacred Music Tour and appeared on the 2008 album Aruna’s Desire by Doug Cuomo.

Outside of music she does voluntary work with the Nyack Community Ambulance Corps.

Anonymous 4 recordings
Awake and Join the Cheerful Choir (English Traditional)
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907325 (CD:  Wolcum Yule)
Harp – Andrew Lawrence King

She performs two medieval works here with Anonymous 4…

Sources:

  1. http://www.anonymous4.com/
  2. http://www.spiritoffes.com/Artists_Summary.php?art_id=9
  3. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:jcfrxqwgldde~T4
  4. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=41:29097~T3
  5. http://www.chorusamerica.org/Conf2008/Documents/EMA%20Singing%20Chant%20(2).pdf
  6. http://www.chantvillage.com/about.php