Sue Anderson

Susan M. Anderson (May 27, 1954 – May 1, 2025 and she performed at school and at her family's church. vocal recitals, and opera and musicals performed at UWEC. In 1975 she toured Europe for eight weeks with the UWEC production of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, one of six American university productions selected by the USO to entertain United States Armed Forces stationed abroad.

Between 1974 and 1977, Anderson worked as the staff pianist and celeste player for Company 10 Playhouse's summer musical theatre seasons at the UWEC campus. She also worked as a pianist at the Barston Dining Room in the Hilton Eau Claire hotel and as an accompanist for local high school choirs.

Broadway and theatre After graduating from college, Anderson moved to New York City, where she began to work as a medical secretary. Her first music post was as the music director of The First All Children's Theatre.

Her first Broadway job was in 1981 as a keyboard player in the pit orchestra of The Pirates of Penzance, eventually being promoted to associate conductor and conducting the show both on Broadway and on tour through 1983. Also in 1981, she was an associate conductor for the Broadway revival of My Fair Lady, coaching Rex Harrison for his return to the role of Henry Higgins. She was the featured onstage pianist for Jerry's Girls (1985–1986) and served as the assistant conductor for the Broadway production of Me and My Girl (1986–1989). #tag:ref|She was assistant conductor for Stanley Lebowsky and later Tom Helm in Me and My Girl, and she worked together on other productions with Helm. She later played piano or keyboards in the Broadway orchestras of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Woman in White, Spamalot and The Lion King. According to her Playbill obituary, Anderson was a trailblazer in helping to break Broadway's glass ceiling for female conductors and "lit the flame for many female musicians in their pursuit of respect within the Broadway orchestra pit."

Other positions and later years Anderson conducted pops concerts with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra. She also was the music director for a National Public Radio political satire group, SoundBites. With Field Studies International, she performed regularly at Carnegie Hall. and at schools, churches, and choirs in New York City and around the Hudson Valley.

Anderson died in 2025 of cancer, after a long illness, at the age of 70.