Biography

British pianist, conductor and répétiteur Susanna Stranders is  a member of the Music Staff of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Before taking up her current position with The Royal Opera, Stranders was Head of Music and Chorus Master for Garsington Opera, where she conducted the world premiere of Orlando Gough and Richard Stilgoe’s Road Rage.

She began her musical training with Harpenden Musicale on piano, violin, oboe and percussion. After graduating from Exeter University with first-class honours in music she studied, with support from the Harpenden Music Foundation, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and won many accompanist prizes. As opera coach at the College-Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati, she was supported by the Henry Richardson Award 2000–2 and  by the Magro Foundation. She was répétiteur for Cincinnati Opera, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Programme, and a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Texas. From 2004-2006, Susanna was a répétiteur on the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

She has worked regularly for The Royal Opera House, Opera North, Glyndebourne Festival and Tour, Grange Park Opera, New York City Opera, the Salzburg Festival and Landestheater, the Philharmonia, and the London, BBC and Taipei symphony orchestras. In recital, she has accompanied singers including René Pape, Bryn Terfel, John Tomlinson, James Gilchrist, Mark Padmore, Sophie Bevan, Christine Rice and Angelika Kirchschlager.

She has  broadcast (radio and television) for the BBC and Sky Arts, with artists including Angel Blue, Joyce DiDonato and Tamara Wilson.

A passionate educator, Stranders coaches at leading British conservatoires and international summer schools, leads masterclasses around the world, regularly sits on audition and competition panels, performs at charity events, and relishes working as a trustee for the Harpenden Music Foundation.

She has been official pianist for both the Neue Stimmen and Veronica Dunne international singing competitions.