Susan Kagan

Susan Kagan, a pianist, author, and educator, has explored the music of composers associated with Beethoven and his milieu. She holds a PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; her dissertation on the music of Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s composition student for more than two decades, was published by Pendragon Press in 1988 (The Music of Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s Patron, Pupil, and Friend). She has recorded several of his works for the Koch International label. Her discography includes three CDs in partnership with the renowned violinist Josef Suk (Koch), two sets of Mozart piano concertos with the Suk Chamber Orchestra of Prague (Vox and Koch Discover), and the complete solo piano sonatas of Ferdinand Ries on five CDs (Naxos). She recently retired from the faculty of Hunter College, where she taught music history and founded the New York Chapter of the American Beethoven Society. In 2007 she received the Ira F. Brilliant Lifetime Achievement Award for Beethoven Performance and Studies from the American Beethoven Society. She was a reviewer of new recordings for Fanfare magazine until 2011, and serves on the Advisory Boards of the American Beethoven Society and the Schubert Society of the United States.