Dr Susannah Self is a trailblazing British composer of choral music, opera and art music. She trained in composition and singing at The Royal College of Music, Cambridge University and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. She won scholarships from The Royal Society of Arts to study in Germany, The Banff Centre to study with John Cage in Canada and a STEAM scholarship to fund her PhD in composition. Her composition teachers were: Alan Ridout, Stephen Dodgson, Richard Causton, Joe Cutler, Jeremy Thurlow, Elizabeth Kelly, Errollyn Wallen and Howard Skempton.
Susannah has also had a full career as an International opera singer. Her expertise in composing for the voice has achieved high regard in this latest review.
“Sea Requiem was a substantial score, yet the material flowed naturally… the extended silence which followed this conclusion…. was a tribute to the audience’s rapt concentration and the cumulative effect of Susannah Self’s fervent, directly expressive music.” Paul Conway, Musical Opinion 2023 .
You can watch her latest work, “Stabat Mater” which premiered this year in Ely Cathedral where Maestro was filmed.
https://youtu.be/YZwU3PJYTic?si=M6uvONv-uuEosHZB
Susannah conducted her operas: The Butt at in Vienna Musictheatertage Festival in 2016 andQuilt Song at The Old Birmingham Rep in 2018.
“The music of The Butt was stylistic with great variety: it was skillfully worked and crafted, offering a variety of moods and motivic links.” Stefan Ender, Der Standard, Vienna, 2016.
Recent Commissions include:
FAST for Spitalfields Festival 2020
The Frontline Worker for Skipton Camerata 2020
ORANGE for English Touring Opera 2020
Her Body for Tête a Tête Festival 2021
Revelations of Divine Love for Aldeburgh Residency 2022
She is my Pharaoh for Tête a Tête Festival 2022
Sea Requiem for Ely Cathedral
Fragments From a Lost Land for Tête a Tête Festival 2023
King René’s Book of Love and Violon Rouge for 5 Churches Festival 2023
The Guest for The Three Choirs Festival 2024
All Shall Be Well for 5 Churches Festival 2024
Artemisia an opera for Wells Maltings 2024
Dr Self is a fellow of SEDA. She has taught composition at Nottingham University and currently teaches composition at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, UK
As an opera singer, Susannah sang solo roles for The Royal Opera House, The Vlaamse Opera, Opéra du Rhin, Lyon Opera, in the opera houses of Salzburg, Lisbon and Luxembourg as well as singing Katisha in The Mikado inLondon’s West End.
Landestheater Salzburg Production: The Turn of the Screw
"Susannah Self created the loyal Mrs. Grose with superior voice."
TheaterKritik, March 2005
For the Royal Opera House’s Garden Venture, she composed HEROIC WOMEN which toured to the Far East, USA and Europe.
Susannah is highly qualified as a vocal coach and repetiteur. Susannah directs her own company Selfmade Music and is the music director for Eaton Choral Society, Ely Collegium and North Sea Voices and Orchestra.
Future commissions include:
"Hilma" A flute and viola concerto. Première Vienna and Salzburg 2025
"The Devil Take Me Home" a chamber opera for four soloists, string quartet and piano: Première, Cambridge, UK 2025
"Magnificat" choral work . Première Ely Cathedral, UK 12th April 2025
Concerto for saxophone and strings. Première Cambridge , UK 2025
About the music
Susannah composes in three distinct styles for three types of work:
1.Choral Works which feature charismatic diatonic and modal dissonance.
The emphasis for works such as " Sea Requiem" and "Stabat Mater" is that they are highly playable and singable.
Stabat Mater 2024
https://youtu.be/YZwU3PJYTic?si=M6uvONv-uuEosHZB
2. Operas which feature provocative contemporary subjects and feature post minimalistic techniques.
Also Susannah's opera oeuvre references Post Neo Classicism with influences from Stravinsky, Ligeti, Reich, Britten and Goebbels. Her works incorporate soundscapes, video and found objects installations.
3. Contemporary Art Music. Here Susannah channels her work with John Cage in the late 1980's using a far wider range of polytonal sonorities paired with motivic development inspired by fractals. Sometimes these works feature soundscapes, visual scores and theatrical elements such a her extended work for string quartet "Fragments from a Lost Land".
