Suzanne’s Bio

Suzanne Gekker is an active classical and jazz performer in the Washington, D.C. area. Originally from New Orleans, she received music degrees from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Yale School of Music. Her primary teachers include David Shifrin, Carmine Campione, Dick Waller, Joaquin Valdepeñas and Bil Jackson. Ms. Gekker has had a long performing career and has played with the Cincinnati Symphony, Ballet Orchestra and Opera, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the American Symphony and Broadway Shows. In the DC area she performs regularly with the Washington Concert Opera, Washington National Opera, The National Cathedral, The National Philharmonic, and the Alexandria Symphony.

Ms. Gekker often plays with local traditional and Gypsy jazz groups including Djangolaya, and the Hot Club of DC, performing in bistros, clubs and restaurant around DC. She was featured with Djangolaya during the 2021 and 2023 Takoma Park Street Festivals, Washington Folk Festival and performed at the French Ambassador’s residence in DC. Ms. Gekker has recently toured the U.S. with the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra and can be heard on their recording, “Jazzin’ the Blues Away.”

An active chamber musician, Ms. Gekker has performed with the Fessenden Ensemble, at the Sunday’s at Three Chamber Series, the Church of the Epiphany’s Concert Series and Washington DC’s Embassy Series. Most recently she was featured on the National Philharmonic’s Chamber Series “Music that Travels Through Space” a virtual musical journey in partnership with NASA. In 2023, she was featured in a concert of new works with the Manhattan Contemporary Chamber Ensemble in New York City’s Christ and St. Stephen’s Church.

In addition to performing in dozens of historical opera houses with Peacherine, Ms. Gekker has had the pleasure of playing in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Strathmore Hall, Lincoln Center, The Washington National Cathedral, Captial One Hall, Preservation Hall in New Orleans, the Toulouse Theatre and Historic Mahogany Hall in New Orleans, St. John the Divine in NYC, the Players Club in NYC, Cincinnati Music Hall and Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto. She has also performed at summer festivals in Aspen and Caramoor and played Broadway shows at the Neil Simon and Schubert Theaters in New York City. She can be heard on recordings by the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra with Kurt Vonnegut, called “Ice-9 Ballads”, Dominic Argento’s “A Water Bird Talk” and Alec Wilder’s “Such a Tender Night”and with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in “Carnegie Hall Presents: Robert Shaw, Preparing a Masterpiece.” Ms. Gekker can be heard on recently released recordings of 21st century music with her husband, Chris Gekker; “Moon Marked”, “Chris Gekker: Trumpet Music of Robert Levy” and “Timequake.”