Susan Alcorn

Susan Alcorn is a pedal steel guitarist, improviser, composer, and bandleader. She has expanded her instrument's role in working far outside the country genre. Her original music reveals the influence of free jazz, avant-garde classical music, Indian raga, and many indigenous traditions and musics of the world. 2000's solo Uma established her reputation. Sur (2002), Curandera (2003), And I Await the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar (2005), and Touch This Moment (2010) cemented it. 2015's solo Soledad offered Astor Piazzolla's compositions and was followed a year later by Evening Tales. She played on Mary Halvorson's seminal Away with You, as well as Nate Wooley's Columbia Icefield in 2018. 2019's Invitation to a Dream was a trio date with Joe McPhee and Ken Vandermark. 2020's Heart Sutra won international acclaim. In 2023, Canto, Alcorn's debut with Septeto Del Sur, wed Chilean folk, nueva canción, rock, improvisation, and contemporary classical.