Susanna Reichling moved to Springfield in 2003 after a 15-year career as a full-time freelance musician in Kansas City. She enjoys the varied life of a percussionist, which allows her to perform in jazz, classical, popular, and world music styles…and gives her the perfect excuse to amass a large collection of instruments from around the world. She is principal percussionist/timpanist with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Ozarks Lyric Opera, and leads a Mexican marimba trio called Marimba Caliente. She also plays drum set for the jazz group Montage, and has played percussion for national touring Broadway shows as well as regional music theater productions.
Sue is currently researching the music history of Springfield and the surrounding Ozarks region, and is creating a large archive of recorded music documenting that history. The collection reaches back as far as 1926 (The Springfield Boy Scout Band), and also includes many recordings from Evangel University’s own history. During the day, Sue works with the music and media collections at Meyer Library on the campus of Missouri State University.