Susan Fancher

Susan Fancher is an internationally recognized classical saxophonist known for her expressive tone and poetic musical interpretations. She has inspired and premiered over 100 new compositions and continues to collaborate with composers both young and more established to create new, vibrant repertoire for the saxophone. Audiences and critics praise her ability to fill even the most complex notation with life, a trademark of her work as a champion of new music.

Susan Fancher is an active performer appearing in concerts as a concerto soloist, with pianist Ināra Zandmane, with the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, performing music with electronics, in sacred settings, and with the band The Difficulties. She is the former soprano saxophonist of the Amherst, Vienna, and Rollin’ Phones saxophone quartets.

​Recent and upcoming performances of new compositions include Scott Lindroth'sSchley Road together with the Ciompi String Quartet, Glory by Harriet Steinkewith the Women’s Wind Ensemble, Men’s Culture by Stuart Saunders Smith with percussionist Joseph Van Hassel, Hedera by James Paul Sain and Mending Time by Martin Bresnick with the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, Enveloped by Jenni Watson for solo saxophone, new music by Shar Joyner, Indiria Everett, and Suzanne Polak for saxophone and piano, and Not The End and other new music created and performed by The Difficulties.

As a concerto soloist, Susan Fancher has championed concertos for soprano saxophone by Mark Engebretson, David Kirkland Garner, Hilary Tann, and Michael Torke. Susan Fancher’s discography lists over twenty albums on Arizona University Records, Philips, New World, Lotus Records Salzburg, Parma, Mark Records, Extraplatte, and Innova Records. Her recording “Of Erthe and Air: Susan Fancher and friends play music of Hilary Tann” on Arizona University Records features a live performance of Tann’s soprano saxophone concerto Shakkei with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, performed at the World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok.

​She has performed in many of the world’s leading venues including Sala São Paulo, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Filharmonia Hall in Warsaw, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and has appeared in concert in Albania, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and throughout the US.

Born and raised in Albion, New York, Susan Fancher earned undergraduate degrees in both saxophone performance and mathematics, as well as her Master and Doctor of Music from Northwestern University, where she was a student of Dr. Frederick Hemke. She was awarded the Médaille d'Or from the conservatory in Bordeaux, France, where she studied with Monsieur Jean-Marie Londeix. Susan Fancher is a Lecturing Fellow at Duke University, where she teaches saxophone and music entrepreneurship and coaches chamber music. She plays on Selmer saxophones and Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and ligatures.

Learn more about Susan Fancher.