About Suzanne

Said to be “a wonderful artist” with a “velvety and smooth” voice, and a “lovely, burnished sound,” Suzanne Fatta is a work in progress. Her range is very expansive, and she sings anywhere from Bass I to Soprano II; she performs professionally as a Bass in the famous ‘Vivaldi’s Women’ choir (Schola Pietatis Antionio Vivaldi, SPAV), with performances in Malta, London, Oxford, Chichester and other venues throughout Europe, and in September 2009, on Sky Arts TV. While she specializes in music of the 16th and 17th centuries, her secondary fields include Ethnomusicology, Ritual Studies, 20th century music, Gender Studies, Buddhism, and Medieval History. Likewise, her performance and research interests range from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras through 21st century new music and folk musics of the world. She has worked as a research, copy, teaching, personal and editorial assistant, as well as a translator, web designer, freelance editor, writing tutor and journal peer reviewer, and currently sits on the Council of the Royal Musical Association.

In October 2009, Sue gave the world-premiere of a song in Malta, called "enthrall[ing and] intriguing" in the local press. Ms. Fatta is currently collaborating with composer Emily Kalies on a theatrical work, Reflection noitcelfeR, based on 'The Pillow Book' and other diaries by women -- she premiered the one-woman piece (complete with pre-recorded audio and video) in the early 2010 season. Other forthcoming collaborations with Morag Galloway and FL Dunkin Wedd for Sue's trio Juniper are on the horizon. Spring 2008, she gave the world-premiere of the Emperor, a Tenor lead role, in a new satirical opera, The Emperor's New Clothes by Hilary Nicholls. Sue's 2008 performance in Viriditas Opera's Ordo Virtutum was said to be a “rich, low solo -- it sounded fantastic… continental. Very unique and distinctive!” by one of the top early musicians in England. Earlier in 2008, she performed 2 lead roles in the world-premiere of Jon Hughes' opera Antigone, also with Viriditas Opera; her performance was hailed as "magnificent," "brilliant," and "wonderful -- astonishingly good acting!"

Recently, Ms. Fatta co-founded a new female trio, Juniper, which experiments with repertoire from across the Western canon. In addition to singing as a Bass with the 'Vivaldi's Women' choir, Ms. Fatta is now the US Representative on the board of the organization. In 2008, Sue began working for Art Monastery Project, an artists' collaborative community in Umbria, Italy; AMP seeks the production of truly collaborative art and has a strong early music bent. For the past few summers, she has participated in a workshop with the world-renowned Tallis Scholars in Oakham, UK and is interested in all aspects of historical performance practice. In college, she was a radio host at WOBC, as DJ Hildegard. For a number of summers, she worked as a counselor and instructor at a music camp in Maine -- there, Sue taught private voice lessons, led vocal performance classes, directed jazz and chamber choirs, taught all levels of music theory and history, and ran the music library. Sue was a contestant on Jeopardy! in 2001 and was married in October 2005; she also has extensive stage and modeling experience (print, runway, TV).

Sue has studied Italian, Spanish, German, French and Latin with a little Greek, Portuguese and Sanskrit thrown in for fun. She has also sung in Hebrew, Friûlan, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Finnish, Russian, old Church Slavonic, Provençal, and Catalan (thank you IPA!). Some favorite pieces include Monteverdi Vespers 1610, Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, Berg Wozzeck, Messiaen Quatour pour la fin du temps, Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah, and most of Byrd's Gradualia. Ms. Fatta has sung the Soprano solos in Brahms Neue Liebeslieder, Carissimi Usquequo peccatores, Schütz Musicalische Exequien, Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor, Carissimi Jepthe, and Barber Hermit Songs: she has also sung the Alto solos in Mazzocchi Lamento di David, and Handel Messiah.