Musical Presentation
Susan Ottzen – harp, Ron Freeman – synthesizer, playing 4 pieces
from Le Petit Pas (the little steps) by Bernard Andres, a contemporary
French composer. They are very sweet meditative pieces.
Susan Ottzen, harpist, is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Institute of Music. She moved to Atlanta to play with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Shaw and has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
She has a large teaching studio. Her students perform at group lessons during the year and attend piano camp and harp camp in the summer. They also perform each year at Fall Fest held at Agnes Scott College, sponsored by the Decatur Music Teachers Association.
In addition to playing harp and piano, she is an accomplished composer with grants from the Fulton County Arts Council and Georgia Council for the Arts, among others. Susan’s arrangement of Stormy Weather played on NPR’s Marketplace Radio for twenty years (whenever the stocks were down).
Most recently, she played harp as an extra for Tyler Perry Studios for a TV episode called “Reunited.” She recently collaborated with Francine Reed recording Stevie Wonder songs with the Jez Graham Trio. She also has a Jazz Harp and Clarinet Duo with Don Erdman playing jazz concerts at the Tucker Library and the Decatur Library in 2018. She is also teaching History of the Harp workshops annually for the Tucker and Decatur libraries.
Ronald Freeman Jr. has been performing professionally as a musician for 15 years. As an Atlanta native, he was heavily influenced by the traditional southern marching band culture. His high school alma mater is the Academy of Richmond County in Augusta, GA. He is currently studying Ethnomusicology at Kennesaw State University with aspirations of becoming a licensed music therapist.