Susannah Self

Biography

Dr Susannah Self is a trail-blazing composer and performer. She has conducted her operas internationally and sung solo roles in many opera houses. As an undergraduate she trained in composition, singing and conducting at The Royal College of Music. She returned to compositional study in 2016, gaining an MPhil in composition at Cambridge University followed by a fully funded PhD in composition at Birmingham Conservatoire. Susannah has also won scholarships from The Royal Society of Arts and the Banff Centre in Canada where she worked with John Cage.

Susannah’s music is published by Composers Edition. Recent commissions include: Freedom Bridge for Birmingham Opera Company. Una Pittrice a Venezia for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Wave Form for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Quilt Song (opera) for Old Rep Birmingham. FAST for Spitalfields Festival. The Butt (opera) for Musiktheatertage Festival, Vienna. The Frontline Worker for Skipton Camerata. ORANGE for English Touring Opera. HER BODY (opera) for Tête à Tête Festival. Last year she composed Revelations of Divine Love during a composing residency at Aldeburgh and was commissioned by Tête à Tête to compose She is My Pharaoh (opera).

Susannah has sung many roles as a mezzo soloist on the International opera scene. In particular she has regularly sung for De Vlaamse Oper, Opéra du Rhin and The Royal Opera House and Covent Garden’s Garden Venture for which she composed and performed her opera Heroic Women. Susannah sang a season in London’s West End at the Savoy Theatre as Katisha in The Mikado. Susannah’s orchestral works South Wind at Clear Dawn and Memories, Dreams, Reflections are recorded by The Moravian Philharmonic, an orchestra once conducted by Mahler. Her Tardebigge Festival commission ,The Goddess in The Wood is recorded by James Gilchrist. Current projects include conducting her Sea Requiem on 1st April 2023 in the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral and a choral work commissioned by Worcester Three Choirs Festival.

Susannah lives in Ely and Norfolk. She is MD for Eaton Choral Society and North Sea Opera. In 2019, she was appointed teacher of composition and MA at Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her YouTube channel is Dr Susannah Self.