Susan Hash-Hires

Susan comes from Marshfield, Wisconsin, where, at Christ Lutheran Church, she grew up singing in the choir with her mom, aunt and grandmother. She came to Lawrence in 1980 to study voice at KU and then to St. Louis for continued private study at the St. Louis Conservatory and School of the Arts (CASA).

In 1992, she and her family moved to Austin, TX. While there, she served for 10 years as the Music Director at Round Rock Presbyterian Church. At RRPC, she grew the choir from 12 to 36 members, established both adult and youth bell choirs, created an interfaith / intergenerational orchestra, and ran a yearly summer musical theatre camp. After her tenure there, she became the Assistant Music Director at Triumphant Love Lutheran Church in Austin.

In performance endeavors in Austin, she had the privilege to work with Craig Hella-Johnson and sang with the professional vocal ensemble Conspirare. She also sang for a short season with the Austin Lyric Opera.

In addition to her job at Trinity, she runs a successful private voice studio at her home in Lawrence, and is very much involved at Theatre Lawrence as show manager, bartender (a skill learned during that Wisconsin childhood), and music director for The Rocky Horror Show, The Ballad of Blackjack, Quilters and Yours, Anne. She has also appeared on stage as Violet Snustad in Church Basement Ladies, Miss Andrew in Mary Poppins, Carmen Bernstein in Curtains! and most recently in the ensemble of Hello Dolly!.

Susan’s two daughters, one son-in-law and one significant other (finally!) all live in Minneapolis, (and in a crazy twist of fate), less than two miles apart. She’s very excited to have them all within easy driving distance at last.