Artist Addition: Susan Alcorn

One of the world’s premiere musical innovators on her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country and western swing music. Known among steel guitarists for her virtuosity and authenticity in a traditional context, Alcorn soon expanded the vocabulary of her instrument by studying modern classical music, the deep listening of Pauline Oliveros, Astor Piazzolla’s nuevo tango, free jazz, and world music. Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression.