Susan Fancher is a renowned classical saxophonist known for her expressive tone and poetic musical interpretations. With a career spanning decades, she has inspired the creation and premiere of over 100 new compositions, collaborating closely with composers both young and more established to expand the repertoire for the saxophone. Audiences and critics praise her ability to fill even the most complex notation with life, a trademark of her work as a champion of new music.
Susan Fancher is an active performer appearing in concerts as a concerto soloist, with pianist Ināra Zandmane, with the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, performing music with electronics, in sacred settings, and with the band The Difficulties. She is the former soprano saxophonist of the Amherst, Vienna, and Rollin’ Phones saxophone quartets.
Recent and upcoming performances of new compositions include Scott Lindroth’s Schley Road together with the Ciompi String Quartet, Enveloped by Jenni Watson for solo saxophone, new works by Shar Joyner, Mark Engebretson, Indiria Everett, and Suzanne Polak for saxophone and piano, a new saxophone quartet by Harriet Steinke, Crossed Shadows by John Supko, Hedera by James Paul Sain, and Mending Time by Martin Bresnick for the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, and Not The End and other new music created and performed by The Difficulties.
As a concerto soloist, Susan Fancher has championed concertos for soprano saxophone by Mark Engebretson, David Kirkland Garner, Hilary Tann, and Michael Torke. Susan Fancher’s discography lists over twenty albums on Arizona University Records, Philips, New World, Lotus Records Salzburg, Parma, Mark Records, Extraplatte, and Innova Records. Her recording “Of Erthe and Air: Susan Fancher and friends play music of Hilary Tann” on Arizona University Records features a live performance of Tann’s soprano saxophone concerto Shakkei with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, performed at the World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok.
She has performed in many of the world’s leading venues including Sala São Paulo, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Filharmonia Hall in Warsaw, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and has appeared in concert in Albania, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and throughout the US.
Born and raised in Albion, New York, Susan Fancher holds undergraduate degrees in saxophone performance and mathematics, as well as Master's and Doctor of Music degrees from Northwestern University, where she studied with Dr. Frederick Hemke. She was awarded the prestigious Médaille d'Or (Gold Medal) from the conservatory in Bordeaux, France, where she studied with Monsieur Jean-Marie Londeix. Susan Fancher currently serves as a Lecturing Fellow at Duke University, where she teaches saxophone and music entrepreneurship and coaches chamber music. She plays on Selmer saxophones and Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and ligatures.