Suzanne Stephens
| Suzanne Stephens | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Suzanne Stephens |
| Born |
July 28, 1946 Waterloo, Iowa, U.S. |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation(s) | soloist, chamber musician |
| Instruments | Clarinet, Bassett horn, Bass clarinet |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
| Labels | Deutsche Grammophon, Acanta, ECM, Stockhausen Complete Edition |
| Associated acts | , Kathinka Pasveer |
| Website | |
Suzanne Stephens (born July 28, 1946) is an American clarinetist, resident in Germany, described as "an outstanding performer and tireless promoter of the clarinet and basset horn" (Hoeprich 2008, 218).
Suzanne Stephens was born in Waterloo, Iowa, the daughter of an American military officer, and grew up in the US, Heidelberg in Germany, and Saumur sur Loire in France (Kurtz 1992, 201). She studied clarinet initially with Ralph Hills in Fairfax, Virginia, and Sidney Forrest in Washington, D.C. She then studied in Paris with Ulysses Delecluse and Marcel Jean, before enrolling at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she studied with Jerome Stowell, second clarinetist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, receiving the degrees Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music. She won a Fulbright Scholarship in 1969–70, with which she pursued further studies under Hans Deinzer at the Academy of Music and Theater in Hanover. After passing the Konzertexamen there, she won the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at Darmstadt and a silver medal at the International Clarinet Competition in Geneva, both in 1972. In 1973 she was appointed principal clarinetist of the Radio Orchestra of the South German Radio in Stuttgart, a position she held until 1975. In 1974–75 she was part of the German Young Soloists Podium (Grass, Demus, and Hagmann 2002, 108).
In March 1974 she was a guest artist with the Oeldorf Group, a collective founded in 1971 by Peter Eötvös, David C. Johnson, Joachim Krist, Mesias Maiguashca, and Gaby Schumacher. They adopted this name because many of them lived in Oeldorf, a district of the municipality of Kürten, and gave concerts of new music in a barn there. Most members of the group were closely connected with , who lived nearby, and at that time was rehearsing his latest composition, Herbstmusik, with the group. Stockhausen added a concluding duet for clarinet and viola, titled "Laub und Regen" (Leaves and Rain), for Stephens to perform with Krist. Although Herbstmusik was not a success at its premiere at the Bremen Pro Musica Festival on May 4, 1974, it led to one of the most fruitful collaborations in history between a clarinetist and a composer, which resulted in more than thirty works featuring both the clarinet, bass clarinet, and basset horn (Hoeprich 2008, 368; Kurtz 1992, 200–202; Weston 1995, 104–05).
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