Pianist Susan Waterfall creates in-depth explorations of the music, life, and cultural milieu of major composers.

Susan Waterfall is a pianist and educator. She specializes in providing lively and insightful cultural contexts for her classical music programs.

Waterfall grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago. At New Trier High School Susan appeared in many productions and directed and wrote music for Lagniappe ’63. She attended the University of Michigan for 6 years, studying piano, music history with Glenn Watkins, philosophy, and Asian Studies. She completed a degree in piano at Chicago Musical College, studying with the guest artist Ivan Moravec, Saul Dorfman, and musicologist Roland Jackson, a life mentor.

In 1970, responding to an irresistible call “back to the land”, Waterfall moved to Mendocino, California, where she taught piano and played solo and chamber music recitals. In 1976 she traveled to Prague where she continued her piano studies with Ivan Moravec. A desire to return to California overland through Asia brought her to South India where she lived, studied, and performed South Indian Classical Music (Carnatic Music) for two years with T. Muktha, of the legendary Dhanammal family in Madras (Chennai) India. Her experiences in this cultural milieu enhanced her appreciation for the role of music in culture.

Returning to the United States, Waterfall studied with pianist Karl Ulrich Schnabel from 1981 until his death in 2001. She gave solo concerts exploring the music of Beethoven and Chopin. In 1983 she met her future husband, composer and conductor Allan Pollack and they founded the Mendocino Music Festival. Waterfall directed the yearly Piano Series and gave lecture-recitals on the works of Olivier Messiaen. Between 1984 and 2000, she performed Mozart Piano Concertos K. 488 and K.595, Beethoven's Fourth Concerto, Nights in the Gardens of Spain, and the Ravel G major Concerto.

Since 2001, Susan Waterfall has created and performed in multi-media, narrated settings for chamber music every year. These have included Voyage à Paris (2001); Gauchos and Tangos, Ginastera and Piazzolla (2002); Bartok’s Women (2003); The Parisian Salon of Winnaretta Singer, Princesse de Polignac (2004); Young Brahms (2005); Scandalous Music! Satie, Ravel, Debussy, and Stravinsky (2006); Leos Janacek: A Solitary Genius (2007); Degenerate Music! Kurt Weill, Schoenberg, and Hanns Eisler in Weimar Berlin (2008); They Left A Light, Masterpieces from Nazi Prison Camps (2009); Hallelujah America (2010); and Irresistible Grooves (2011).

Music for a Teahouse (2012), with Wu Man, included compositions of Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, and other Chinese composers impacted by the Cultural Revolution. Umi no Hi (2013) featured an entire day of events celebrating Japan’s contemporary and historic music and culture, featuring the compositions of Toru Takemitsu, taiko, and a haiku garden.

In 2014 Waterfall designed and performed in the four-day Bach Fest, featuring lectures and concerts. Mozart in Mendocino (2015), the Beethoven Tribute (2016), Understanding Schubert (2017), Chopin: Dreams and Memories of a Lost Homeland (2018) and Brahms (2019) continued her chronological presentations. During the Covid pandemic, Waterfall created 4 short films exploring Debussy’s Preludes Book One and Two. For the 2021 Festival she presented a documentary on the life and music of Kurt Weill. She also completed a film based on her 2017 lecture Understanding Schubert. 2022 brought the culmination of Waterfall’s Debussy projects. The biographical film The Life and Art of Claude Debussy was completed and she performed solo and chamber music in two all-Debussy programs for the Mendocino Music Festival: Breakfast with Chouchou and Sounds and Perfumes of Evening.

Susan and her husband Allan Pollack are the parents of the acclaimed keyboardist and producer Julian Waterfall Pollack, aka J3PO.