Composer-IN-RESIDENCE
May 8-22, 2024
Susan Mayo
Susan Mayo is passionate about using sound, the universal tongue, as a vehicle for creating community and celebrating place. Vibrations unleashed in the atmosphere truly transform us. Each locale has unique sounds – sharing these promotes and celebrates cultural conversations. Susan blends genres creating unique sounds in both her performance groups and her compositions. She is intrigued by the blending of technology/nature – acoustic/electronic forces and is passionate about putting interesting music in interesting places.
Susan Mayo is active as a composer and as a cellist. Specializing in collaborative community place-based works she is currently working on two projects for her ecology/arts non-profit Flint Hills Counterpoint which have received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Mid American Arts Alliance, and the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission. She has performed globally with both classical and alternative ensembles and is active as a community arts promoter. She is currently co-executive director of Flint Hills Counterpoint, an ecology/arts project based in Marion County Kansas, music director for Symphony in the Flint Hills fall event Woodfest, board chair of the Historic Sunflower Theatre, and guest lecturer at Wichita State University. Susan performs with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, the Switchgrass String Quartet, Multifarious, and a variety of other alternative groups. She pursued her undergraduate degree at the University of the Pacific (BM: Cello Performance) as well as doing graduate work at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and Wichita State University (BME in Special Music Education) and the University of Kansas (DMA in Cello Performance).
PROJECT AT GOOD HART ARTIST RESIDENCY
During her residency, Susan will work on a composition that celebrates the Little Traverse Conservancy. Sound ideas, both digital and conceptual, will be used as raw material to compose a work that reflects the unique soundscape and ecosphere of the Conservancy. Individual motifs inspired by sounds and impressions of the Conservancy will be woven together to create a unique artwork honoring the land and the culture of the area.