ALUMNI UPDATE: SUZANNE ROTH BUERER

Posted on May 29, 2020

Pictured: Suzanne and the Sweet Adelines

(PJS 1977-1980)

Being in PJS helped grow my sense of self-discipline, dedication, and the ability to work hard in a team (PJS) to reach a goal together. Having Mr. A as the conductor helped me grow in self-confidence and deepened my love of music more than ever. That love of music has been with me my whole life.

A favorite memory I have is a rehearsal where the full symphony was running a fast and exciting passage of music. I was chugging away on my double bass with my bow flying, and Mr. A happened to look straight at me. His face lit up from my enthusiasm, and he smiled broadly at me and proceeded to direct with even more vigor! It felt really good.

I’ve worked full-time for Fred Meyer for 42 years now and am still going strong. It was my work-through-college thing and ended up as my vocation despite earning my Music BA! I’ve been really happy there since moving to information systems, especially as an analyst. I’ve also written and I’m in the process of self-publishing a book that is a study of what the Bible says about animals.

Thankfully I get a lot of musical activity in being my church choir’s pianist, playing electric bass on worship team, playing accompaniment for the occasional flute or cello soloist, and singing in Sweet Adelines! I sing in a competing chorus and a competing vocal quartet (That’s me second fro the left in the photo above.). Plus, I arrange music for barbershop singing and have even started writing songs (both lyrics and music). I’ve won two years in a row now at a multi-state contest for tag writing, in the mixed voice category for non-professional writers. I still hope to train for certification to become a director of a barbershop chorus, which besides being exciting would also help make good use of all the musical training I got in college.