Collection: Suskind, Joyce Hope

1928 - 2017
Suskind, Joyce Hope

Joyce Hope Suskind (1928-2017) enjoyed a varied career as composer, performer, and teacher in New York, her native city. After completing her studies at Juilliard as a scholarship student in oboe and voice, Suskind discovered her talent for composing while playing improvisational piano at the Martha Graham School. She received a commission from Lehman College to compose a score for a Balinese dance which was written for gamelan, flute, and percussion. She went on to specialize in vocal music, composing a score for a musical comedy, a revue, a feminist anthem, which was her first published song, cabaret songs, and numerous art songs, most of them set to the poems of WB Yeats. She is known as a composer of art songs, published by Hildegard and American Composers Edition. She passed away at her home in New York City on Sunday, Feb. 26th, 2017.