Susan Frykberg

Susan Frykberg (10 October 1954 – 7 April 2023) was a New Zealand electroacoustic composer and a sound artist. She also composed acoustic music in a variety of genres.

Life

Susan Frykberg was born in Hastings, New Zealand, and studied at the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago, studying under, among others, John Rimmer, Barry Vercoe, Barry Conyngham, and Iannis Xenakis. She moved to Canada in 1979 and worked as a freelance composer in Toronto until a move to Vancouver in 1986, to complete a master's degree at Simon Fraser University with Barry Truax. She would teach in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University for seven years.

She served as a guest lecturer at the Ontario College of Art (Toronto), Emily Carr College (Vancouver), Auckland University, RMIT University (Melbourne), and Box Hill Institute of TAFE (Melbourne). She is survived by one son.

Works

Frykberg composed electroacoustic works. Selected compositions include:

• Mother Too
• Insect Life
• Birth/Rebirth Bearing Me
• Audio Birth Project
• Margaret
• Astonishing Sense
• I Didn’t Think Much About It
• Sue and Kathy Telecompose across the Country

Her works have been recorded and issued on media including:

• Astonishing Sense Of Being Taken Over By Something Greater Than Me (CD) Earsay Productions, 1998
• Transonances (Cass, Ltd) Underwhich Audiographics, 1984
• harangue I (CD) Earsay, 1998