... Susan Taylor Howell is music specialist at the Montessori Children's House and Primary School in Blacksburg, Virginia. For 12 years she directed the Children's Choir and Choristers of Christ Episcopal Church in Blacksburg. She has done graduate work at the Kodály Center of America and holds the Level III Kodály Certificate from Indiana University as well as Level II Orff Certification and the American Recorder Society Teacher's Certificate. She has taught recorder to students of all ages and backgrounds for about 30 years.
... Winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs' First Place Award in composition at age 16, Susan was a scholarship student of Thomas Beversdorf in composition at Indiana University, and holds the Masters degree from Radford University. She edited The Owl Sings, the second in a series of folk song collections published by the Organization of American Kodály Educators, and co-edited Sourwood Mountain in the same series. Her compositions and arrangement have been published by Choristers Guild and Boosey & Hawkes. Recorder in the Kodály Classroom is published by Music House Press, Blacksburg, Virginia.... Her interest in historical music and early instruments dates back to the 1960s. She taught the first classes in recorder and other early instruments ever offered by the Indiana University School of Music, and founded and directed the Pro Arte Consort. She also choreographed the Pro Arte Ensemble's annual Madrigal Dinners through the 1970s.
... As a performer she has specialized in historical music and dance, and has taught in both areas at Indiana University, the Aspen Choral Institute, and many special workshops. Between 1973 and 1979 she was an ensemble director for Young Audiences of Indiana, presenting programs of early music for school children throughout the state. She performed and recorded with the Indiana Universtiy Pro Arte Consort, and more recently has performed with the Church Street Consort and Singers and performed and recorded with the New River Consort. She has also recorded singing commercials and pop demos, and sang in the premier performance of the multimedia Concerto for Tuba and in the premier performance and Voice of America recording of Black America: In Memoriam Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, both by jazz composer David Baker.
The author is married to John Howell, Associate Professor of Music at Virginia Tech. They have four grown children, Heather, Ian, Christena and Rémi, all musical, two of whom play recorder, and one of whom is a professional musician.
Silhouettes: Jenny Schuetz as a new recorder student in 1983, photo by Arnold Schuetz, one of a pair showing Jenny and her brother Max playing their recorders. Susan Taylor Howell: photo by Bob Arnold. Web Site © 1999, designed by Roldolfo Long, maintained by John Howell.
