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Lecturer, Horn |
Susie Fritts’ Horn career has taken her around the world as both performer and teacher, beginning with the Melbourne Symphony, Astra Chamber Orchestra, and the Elizabethan Trust Opera Orchestras in Australia. She won the Astra Concerto Competition, performing the Goedicke Concerto and Franz Strauss Concerto No. 1 with the orchestra, which paved the way to her professional orchestral work. Ms. Fritts also lived in Germany for six years, performing in orchestras including Landestheater Detmold, Philharmonia Hungarica, Frankfurt Opera, playing Wagner operas in Staatstheater Kassel, Gürzenich Cologne Opera, and off-stage Horn with Bayreuth Wagner Festival Orchestra. She also enjoyed playing in historical Hunting-Horn groups.
Susie’s previous domestic orchestral experience includes positions with Jacksonville (FL), Kansas City, New Mexico, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestras, as well as Staunton (original instruments), Bellingham, Colorado, and Eastern Music Festivals, and the Santa Fe Opera. She also served as Principal/Solo Horn with the United States Army Field Band in Washington, D.C., touring in the band and as a soloist with the ensemble across the USA and in Europe. She was a founding member of the USAFB Brass Quintet. Susie loves playing chamber music with winds, strings, and brass and has toured Beijing, China and Germany with various brass quintets.
Ms. Fritts has taught Horn (and Brass Choir) on university faculties in Virginia, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, and Florida. She loves inspiring young musicians and has coached the Horn and Brass sections of youth orchestras wherever she has lived.
Susie currently is the Associate Principal Horn of the Greeley Philharmonic and freelances in Denver and Northern Colorado. She teaches Instrumental Music in LCSD1 in Cheyenne and is the Horn faculty member of Laramie County Community College.
Ms. Fritts received her B.A. in Instrumental and Vocal Music Education at St. Olaf College, studied graduate Horn at the University of Michigan, and earned her M.M. in Horn Performance at Northwestern University, where she was awarded Pi Kappa Lambda. Later, she studied privately with Gerd Seifert in Germany. She is very excited to share her Horn passion with the UW students!
Outside of music, Susie enjoys her dog Banjo, cooking with friends, and outdoor recreation and sports, especially in the mountains or water!
