Suzanne has fulfilled numerous music commissions, including pieces for members of the PSO, D.U. Red Masquers, D.U. Medieval and Renaissance Players, Carlow College, and fellow D.U. alums. Her compositions have been featured in many solo events, solo recitals, theatre productions, and at the International Conference of the Double Reed Society. Recently, she collaborated on Homeless: the Musical, which received two local performance runs. Her score is heard during the DVD-recorded performance of The Tragedy of Jane Shore. In addition, The Beggar’s Opera was given mention for “Best Scores of 2001” in both the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and the City Paper. Suzanne is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at CAPA: the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. In addition to being the primary piano lab instructor, she has happily accompanied her students at various competitions, including the Pittsburgh Concert Society Young Artists’ Competition. She has also appeared twice as a concerto soloist for the CAPA Symphony Orchestra. At Saint Vincent College, she is an adjunct faculty member teaching both private piano instruction and music theory. She also teaches at Hope Academy for the Music and the Arts, based at East Liberty Presbyterian Church, and is the director of Voices of Hope, which is Hope Academy’s choir comprised of singers from ages five to eighteen. Also for the Academy, she teaches private voice and piano and is a Musical Theatre Voice and Acting Instructor, During spring showtime, she turns into Music Director and Accompanist. Suzanne has acted with both Carlow College and the Summer Company. Her favorite role was “Olga”, the crazed Russian pianist, in Stage Door. For the D.U. Contemporary Ensemble, she has premiered solo acting pieces, including David Del Tredici’s Dracula, which required her to sing a semi-operatic score. In her senior year at D.U., she was a member of the D.U. Chamber Singers. She also appeared and/or music directed for numerous musicals at Carlow College and for the D.U. Red Masquers and Spotlight. Among them: Lady In the Dark, On the Twentieth Century, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Ernest in Love, Into the Woods, and Godspell.
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Suzanne U. Polak is a versatile artist: a chamber
musician, composer, educator, and sometime actor and vocalist. She
received both a Masters in Composition and Theory and a Bachelors
in Piano Performance from Duquesne University. She remains on the
University Accompanying Staff, and also accompanies for Saint Vincent
College. In Addition, she has performed and worked with members
of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and River City Brass Band,
and retains a position as organist for St. Peter’s E & R
Church. This year, she will appear as a soloist for Damascus High
School in Montgomery County, Maryland, playing Gershwin’s  |
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