BackRoom Boston Presents: Ari Sussman

Sussman's music illustrates equivocal worlds of sounds that are ambient, euphonious, & ethereal in nature.

Praised for his “sophisticated writing” (GTM) and work that “weave(s) a trance-like mystical aura” (Zamir Chorale), Ari Sussman (b. 1993) is a Philadelphia based pianist, clawhammer banjoist, and composer of vocal, chamber, orchestral, choral, and electronic music. His music has been featured and performed throughout the United States and Europe by the KC VITAs Chamber Choir, soprano Tony Arnold, NPR, Zamir Chorale of Boston, Ensemble Ipse, American Modern Ensemble, the Juventas New Music Ensemble, and others. Kabbalah, the natural world, cosmology, meditation, metaphysics, ancient and contemporary poetry, the human condition, and interactionism are among Sussman's non-musical influences and interests. As a result, Sussman's music illustrates equivocal worlds of sounds that are ambient, euphonious, and ethereal in nature.

Recently named composer-in-residence with the Boise-based ‘208 ensemble,’ Sussman has won the American Composers Forum: Philadelphia Chapter: Young Composers Scholarship, two Honorable Mentions for the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award, the University of Michigan Brehm Prize in Choral Composition, a “First Music” commission from the New York Youth Symphony, and he was a featured composer for the ‘Shalshelet’ 6th International Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music. Sussman has received an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, a BMI Student Composer Award, and the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship in composition from the Tanglewood Music Center.

An accomplished concert pianist, Sussman has performed many concerts and recitals throughout the Philadelphia, Boston, and Ann Arbor areas. With a fondness for musical theatre, Sussman has held music directorships for productions of Hairspray, Les Misérables, The Last Five Years, and others. With a love for American traditional/roots music, Sussman plays piano and clawhammer banjo for English country dance bands, Contra-dance bands, and Old-time bands.

Sussman received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music with honors in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music where he received the Donald Martino Award for Excellence in Composition, and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition at the University of Michigan. Sussman is currently an Adjunct Instructor of Music Theory and Composition at the Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance and the West Chester University Wells School of Music. His primary musical mentors include Michael Gandolfi, Kati Agócs, Evan Chambers, and Kristin Kuster.

Sussman enjoys long walks, playing basketball, drinking tea, Broad City, mancala, cheesecake, and avidly rooting for Philadelphian and University of Michigan sports teams. Sussman is a member of BMI and the Landscape Music Composers Network.

Light refreshments follow the concert.

Though this event is free, it is not free to produce. Donations can be made through

Note. Proof of Vaccinations & Booster required upon entry for those over the age of 5. Masks required for all upon entry.

Host or Publisher The Boston Synagogue