Embedded Files
Professional ~ Academic ~ Teachers ~ Personal
Professional
Professional
Susan (Brynolfson) Gierthy is a musician and educator, a woodwind doubler who specializes in the double reeds. In addition to free-lance performing and private teaching, she is an adjunct faculty member at Emma Willard School.
Susan is an experienced teacher.
Susan is an experienced teacher.
Susan has been teaching music for over 20 years. She has taught in a variety of settings and at every level, from beginning band and Kindergarten classroom music to middle school chorus to an oboe pedagogy college course and coaching youth orchestra sectionals. She has taught in private and public schools, full-time and tenured as well as part-time, in a more supportive role. She served as Assistant Director of the Cady School of Music, helping to lead a lesson studio with over a half dozen music teachers.
Susan maintains a private studio from her home, offering lessons in woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon) at all levels, other band instruments (brass and percussion) at beginning and intermediate levels, oboe reed-making, and music theory.
Susan makes and sells oboe reeds, individually handcrafted to suit the performer, as well as prepared oboe reed cane. For more information, please go to the "Oboe Reeds" page.
Susan has been a New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) adjudicator since 2018 and frequently serves on the committee to adjudicate the Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO) oboe and bassoon entrance auditions.
After graduating from the State University of New York College at Fredonia in 2002, Susan taught 5th & 6th grade instrumental music at Hoosic Valley Elementary School in Schaghticoke, NY and private lessons on woodwind instruments and music theory in the Albany area. She left her position at Hoosic Valley after two years to pursue a Master's degree full time. While studying at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Susan taught private lessons in flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and trumpet at Smith-Holden Music. Upon returning to the Albany area after completing her degree at IU, Susan taught private lessons, theory, and a college preparatory class at the Cady School of Music for just over 10 years. She taught beginning band (5th & 6th grade ensembles, 5th-8th grade woodwind lessons) and 7th grade general music at Lisha Kill Middle School in South Colonie for 6 years, then 5th & 6th grade general music and 5th-8th grade chorus for a 7th year in that district. She resigned from that tenured position in order to be able to spend more time with her family. She continued private teaching and also spent a year teaching part-time in ESYO's El Sistema-inspired CHIME program in Schenectady NY. She taught woodwind lessons part-time at Averill Park High School for 3 years and is now teaching woodwind lessons part-time at Emma Willard School.
Susan is an enthusiastic performer.
Susan is an enthusiastic performer.
Susan regularly plays second oboe with the Capital Region Wind Ensemble. She has also performed with the following groups as an orchestral oboist: Albany Symphony, Schenectady Symphony, Glens Falls Symphony, Albany Pro Musica, Festival Theater Hudson, Octavo Singers, and Saratoga Voices. She has accompanied several choirs as an oboe soloist, such as the Ecumenical Festival Celebration Choir, RPI Newman Center Choir, and Sage College Choir.
Susan is primarily an oboist but specializes in the other woodwind instruments as well: flute, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone. Thanks to her woodwind specialization, Susan often plays doubling roles in musical productions. Highlights include "Ragtime" at Playhouse Stage Company, "Fun Home" at Hubbard Hall, and many high school productions, ranging from "West Side Story" to "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" to "The Wedding Singer."
Susan's various performing experiences range from giving a Master's degree recital on oboe, bassoon, and clarinet to playing alto and tenor saxophones with the Georgie Wonders Orchestra, a big band based in Rotterdam, NY. Susan played with the woodwind quintet Zephyr Winds 2013-2020 and is a founding member of The Excelsior Chamber Players, a consortium of upstate musicians who present eclectic programs on a wide variety of instruments.
Susan premiered several pieces while at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, notably David Farrell's 5 Songs for Soprano, Oboe, and Percussion and Ryan Burruss's original edition of Pascal. A truly versatile performer, Susan is in demand to play at weddings as well.
Check out the "Upcoming Events" page for up-to-date information.
Academic
Academic
Master of Music in Multiple Woodwinds (5) Performance
cognate in Music Education
2004-2006
State University of New York College at Fredonia
Bachelor of Music in Music Education, summa cum laude
minor in Philosophy
1998-2002
1994-1998
Teachers
Teachers
Susan has been privileged to study with the following teachers:
Oboe - Linda Strommen, John Mack, Randall Ellis, Sarah Hamilton, Ruth Goldstein
Bassoon - Michael Jones, Arthur Weisberg, Arianne Lovelace, Ruth Goldstein
Clarinet - Guy Yehuda, Ruth Goldstein, Susan Martula
Flute - Qiao Zhang, Ruth Goldstein, Linda Greene
Saxophone - Adam McCord, Linda Thornton
Piano - Ruth Goldstein, Mario Falcao
Chamber Music - Kathryn Lukas, members of the Fredonia Woodwind Quintet, Ruth Goldstein
Personal
Personal
Susan (Brynolfson) Gierthy, a native of Albany, New York, began her musical education with Ruth Goldstein, studying piano and clarinet. She added flute to her studies in middle school, and oboe became her primary instrument in high school. Inspired by Goldstein as well as her experiences with the Empire State Youth Orchestra, Susan attended the State University of New York College at Fredonia School of Music, where in 2002 she earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree, summa cum laude. Upon graduation she became an instrumental music educator for Hoosic Valley Central School District in upstate New York. In 2004 she went on from that position to pursue her Master of Music in Multiple Woodwinds (5) degree at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she was an Associate Instructor in the Music Education Department. Susan returned to Albany, NY in the fall of 2006. After a year of free-lancing, Susan began teaching at Lisha Kill Middle School in the South Colonie School District, where she stayed until the birth her her daughter Eleanor (Ellie) in 2014. She continued free-lancing and private teaching and has been teaching part-time at a variety of institutions while enjoying spending time with Ellie and her son Henry, born in 2017.
When she's not teaching or involved in a musical activity, Susan enjoys spending time with her family, connecting with friends, going on outdoor adventures, gardening, reading, crafting, doing puzzles, and playing games.
Click here for some of Susan's favorite websites.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse