SUESSE Dana

Nadine Dana Suesse was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on December 3, 1909. She passed away on October 16, 1987.
Dana was 9 when she gave her first concert, and she performed a twopiano work of Cécile Chaminade with Miss Concannon, among other pieces by Rheinhold, MacDowell, Grieg and Rachmaninoff.

Compositions

Biography

Nadine Dana Suesse was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on December 3, 1909. She passed away on October 16, 1987.
Dana was 9 when she gave her first concert, and she performed a twopiano work of Cécile Chaminade with Miss Concannon, among other pieces by Rheinhold, MacDowell, Grieg and Rachmaninoff. As an encore, she improvised on Rachmaninoff ’s famous Prelude op. 3.
Improvisation was one of the most novel parts of the young Dana’s concerts. Following one concert in 1925, a listener observed: “those in the small audience, instead of giving her a direct theme, suggested the type of music they would like to hear. One asked for something along the line of a Chopin Waltz, and got it. Another wanted a Nocturne, another a March, and so on. Her ability to snatch appropriate melodies out of the air, and develop them effectively, astonished her hearers.”
It appeared that Dana did nothing but create: poetry, drawings, doll costumes, paintings, dramatic plays… At age 13, Dana would already play her own compositions on the radio.
In 1927, shortly after having moved to New York, Dana Suesse started taking lessons with Alexander Siloti (pupil of Liszt and cousin and teacher of Rachmaninoff).
At that time, she also studied composition with Rubin Goldmark (teacher of Copland and Gershwin among others).
While publishers kept ignoring all her compositions, she got attention with her Syncopated love song thanks to Nat Shilkret. A bit later, she got acquainted with many musicians, including the piano duo team of Bera Brodsky and Harold Triggs, for which she will write a high number of arrangements. Success was definitive when Bing Crosby performed and recorded her song Ho Hum in 1931.
In 1972, a 21 years old pianist named Peter Mintun decided to write to her. He had been fond of her music and wrote a fan letter. She only wrote back “thank you”, not believing anyone could sincerely like her old music.
After she heard a tape of Mintun’s performance of her songs, she “nearly dropped dead” and decided to meet the pianist who lived in San Francisco. They became close friends, and in 1974, Mintun managed to organize a great concert of her works in Carnegie Hall. Dana was so grateful for all that Peter did for her, that she made him the legal heir to her “classical” works.

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Events

15

Feb

2024

Dana Suesse

French creation and recording of the ” Concerto for two pianos in E minor ” of the American composer Dana Suesse. February 15, 2024 at 8:00 AM, by the Duo […]