Susan Lamb Cook, cellist
Susan Lamb Cook is Instructor of Cello and Chamber Music at the University of California, Davis, a member of the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra, and is director of The Great Composers Chamber Music Series at the Harris Center for the Performing Arts in Folsom, California. Currently on faculty at the Saarburg International Music Festival in Germany, she has also served on the artistic staff for the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria, and the Vianden Festival, Luxembourg. She has performed as soloist with the Sacramento Philharmonic, the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, the Reno Philharmonic, the Cairo Symphony (Egypt), the Paradise Symphony, the Camellia Symphony, the American River College Orchestra, and, in 2015, was featured as soloist in a Gala Concert in the Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt, Austria with the Classical Music Festival Orchestra.
Her tours of China have included performances and master classes at the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory and in the cities of Jinan, Liaosheng, Dezhou, Qilu, Hangzhou and Xiamen. She has performed and given master classes at San Francisco State University, Scripps College, Harvey Mudd College, Marshall University in West Virginia, and Austin College in Texas. Her recordings include works by Dan Kingman on the Innova label, a CD of works by Rachmaninoff for Cello and Piano, and a CD of works by Beethoven, Beach, and Bernstein with the Gold Coast Trio, and her performances have been featured on National Public Radio and Austrian National Television.
As pedagogue, Susan Lamb Cook is highly regarded as both cellist and chamber musician, and her students perform regularly for competitions and public concerts. She is an active member of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, Music Teachers’ Association of California, and the American String Teachers Association, and is co-author of Guide to Teaching Strings by Norman Lamb. In recent years, her focus on music education has taken her to public schools around the region offering performance presentations and classroom visits. Grants from the Rumsey Community Fund and the Swift Fund for the Arts supported her appearances as artist-in-residence for the Esparto School District. Her work in developing the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s Chamber Music Workshop received recognition from the New York-based organization Chamber Music America, the Association of Chamber Music Players, Inc. and, in 2019, a Resolution from the City of Sacramento.
Ms. Lamb Cook studied with Angelica May at the Academy of Music in Vienna, Austria, and Charles Wendt at the University of Iowa.