Janis Susskind awarded OBE in Queen's Birthday Honours
Janis Susskind, Managing Director of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited, has been awarded an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her services to music.
Janis Susskind has championed classical music and contemporary composers for over 30 years, both through her work at Boosey & Hawkes and in the wider music community. At Boosey & Hawkes, she has led the expansion of the composer list to encompass many of the leading figures in classical music today and fostered a dynamic international approach to the promotion of composers and the catalogue as a whole. Under her direction, the company’s revenues from new music performances have doubled since 2004.
Beyond her position at Boosey & Hawkes, Janis has played an active role in many music organisations in the UK. She has served as Chairman of the Society for the Promotion of New Music, board member of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and NMC record label, member of Arts Council England advisory panels and Trustee of the Royal College of Music. She recently completed two four-year terms on the Board of English National Opera, is currently a Trustee of the Britten-Pears Foundation, and is a board member of the International Artist Managers’ Association (IAMA).
Janis was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal College of Music in 2007, has twice been named in the Evening Standard’s ‘Most Influential’ list and was cited by Musical America in 2013 as one of the ‘Movers & Shakers: 30 Key Influencers in the Performing Arts’.
John Minch, worldwide Chief Executive of Boosey & Hawkes, said:
“I am thrilled for Janis. She has devoted her entire working life to classical music publishing and is a careful creative influence on so much of the great new music we hear today. She is confidante to many of the world’s leading composers and Janis and the team she has put together play a crucial role in getting their music performed.”
Sir Nicholas Kenyon, Managing Director, Barbican Centre, said:
“It is such a pleasure that the Queen’s Birthday Honours are recognising the achievement of someone who has done so much good for the most adventurous music of our time. Janis has worked tirelessly to nurture, guide and promote the work of leading composers, and she has made a permanent contribution to our musical life.”
Janis Susskind said:
“This honour came as a bolt from the blue, all the more so as we music publishers tend to work in the wings, providing support behind the scenes. I am of course delighted to receive this recognition and would like to thank the colleagues who contributed to our collective achievements and the composers who continue to write music that will stand the test of time.”
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Janis Susskind: Biography
Houston-born Janis Susskind graduated from Princeton University with a BA in English and arrived in the UK in 1980. Following the death of her first husband, conductor Walter Susskind, she joined the London office of Boosey & Hawkes and learnt the publishing business from the ground up. Working on the promotion of classical and contemporary composers, she became a Boosey & Hawkes director in 1997, joined the Board in 2004 as Publishing Director, and was appointed Managing Director in 2012. Her second husband, former Boosey & Hawkes Managing Director, Tony Fell died in 2011.
She has led the expansion of the composer list to encompass many of the leading figures in classical music today – including Louis Andriessen, Harrison Birtwistle, Unsuk Chin, Karl Jenkins, Magnus Lindberg, James MacMillan and Mark-Anthony Turnage – and has also worked particularly closely with John Adams, Steve Reich and the late Elliott Carter. She has fostered a dynamic international approach to the promotion of composers and the catalogue as a whole and, under her direction, the company’s revenues from new music have doubled since 2004.
At the same time, anniversary campaigns such as those for the Benjamin Britten centenary (developed in close collaboration with the Britten-Pears Foundation) and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in 2013 have led to substantial increases in international performance activity. The Britten100 celebrations spanning the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons saw over 4,500 performances in 1,100 towns in 55 countries around the world.
Beyond her position at Boosey & Hawkes, Janis has played an active role in organisations within the music community. She has served as Chairman of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (1983-88); board member of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (1991-2000) and NMC record company (1991-92); Trustee of the Royal College of Music (1996-2005); and member of Arts Council England advisory panels (1993 -2006). Most recently, she completed two four-year terms on the Board of English National Opera (2004-12). She is currently a Trustee of the Britten-Pears Foundation (2001-10; 2011-) and in 2012 joined the Board of the International Artist Managers’ Association (IAMA).
She was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal College of Music in 2007, has twice been named in the Evening Standard’s ‘Most Influential’ list and was cited by Musical America in 2013 as one of the ‘Movers & Shakers: 30 Key Influencers in the Performing Arts’.
Janis Susskind OBE, HonRCM holds dual US and British citizenship. A keen violinist, Janis takes great pleasure in playing chamber music with friends of a Sunday afternoon.
About Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes, the classical music division of the Imagem Music Group, is a world-leading publisher of contemporary classical music, with a blue chip catalogue of 20th-century masters including Bartók, Bernstein, Britten, Copland, Prokofieff, Strauss and Stravinsky alongside an eminent front list of composers that includes John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Harrison Birtwistle, Unsuk Chin, Peter Maxwell Davies, Brett Dean, Detlev Glanert, Osvaldo Golijov, HK Gruber, Karl Jenkins, Magnus Lindberg, James MacMillan, Steve Reich, Einojuhani Rautavaara and Mark-Anthony Turnage. Boosey & Hawkes has offices in London, New York and Berlin and a network of agents around the world.
Photo: Boosey & Hawkes
