Susanna Mendlow

Bio

Cellist Susanna Mendlow “commands attention, drawing our ears and eyes to her playing.” (TheatreMania)  A versatile performer and arranger, she is half of the multi-genre duo Cello, World and a member of the classical ensemble Kassia Music. She is also the most recent cellist for the tango group Quintango. She has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico, South America, and Central Asia. 

As the cellist for Kassia Music, ensemble-in-residence of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer’s Music Series, Susanna has premiered several works and reintroduced lesser-known classical works to audiences. The stylistically diverse duo Cello, World performs dynamic programs of music adapted for two cellos. In 2021, Cello, World presented a series of free interactive concerts to residents of short-term housing facilities in the District, a project generously funded by the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities. Susanna also earned an Emergent Seed award for writing Cello, World’s “Variations on Avre Este Abajour”. As a soloist, Susanna strives to excite audiences with varied concerts that blend western canon and original arrangements for cello.

While living in Michigan, Susanna co-founded an experimental jazz and ethnic folk group that traveled throughout the contiguous US before touring Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic as part of a project to build cross-cultural connections through music. Susanna continued her exploration of arranging, improvising, and performing non-Western music in New York City. Her doctoral paper, “Musical Transcription and Arrangement in the 21st Century: The Challenges of Reinterpreting a Traditional Bulgarian Folk Song”, uses a personal case study to explore the concept of authenticity in modern music performance. 

Susanna holds degrees from SUNY Stony Brook (DMA), Michigan State University, and Columbia University.