Suzanne Ciani facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Suzanne Ciani
Ciani in 2024
Background information
Born	(1946-06-04) June 4, 1946 (age 79) Indiana, U.S.
Genres	Electronic New age avant-garde
Occupation(s)	Musician composer sound designer record label executive
Instruments	Synthesizer keyboards piano
Years active	1974–present
Labels	Finnadar RCA Private Music Seventh Wave

Suzanne Ciani (born June 4, 1946) is an American musician, composer, and sound designer. She became famous in the 1970s for her electronic music. She also created sound effects for movies and TV commercials. Suzanne Ciani has been nominated for a Grammy Award five times. People call her the "Diva of the Diode" and "America's first female synth hero." This is because of her amazing work with electronic music.

Early Life and Musical Beginnings

Growing Up and First Instruments

Suzanne Ciani was born in Indiana. She grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts, near Boston. She has four sisters and a family history from Italy. Her father was a doctor. Suzanne started playing the piano when she was six years old.

College and New Sounds

From 1964 to 1968, Suzanne studied classical music at Wellesley College. She also took evening classes. One class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) introduced her to music technology. She was inspired by German photographer Ilse Bing and classical composers.

Discovering Synthesizers

Suzanne studied for her master's degree at the University of California, Berkeley. This was from 1968 to 1970. There, she met Don Buchla, who invented synthesizers. She was very impressed by his analog modular synthesizer, the Buchla. This was a competitor to the Moog synthesizer. Suzanne became a big fan and even worked for Buchla. She called him the "Leonardo DaVinci of instrument design." She spent time using a Buchla synthesizer at Mills College. She also took a summer course in computer music at Stanford University.

Working for Buchla

After college, Suzanne worked at Buchla and Associates. She earned money to buy her own Buchla 200 synthesizer. She helped build the synthesizers. She felt like she was losing children when they were shipped away.

First Music Jobs

Her first paid music job was in 1969. She created sounds for 10 Macy's Christmas advertisements. She also worked on sound art for galleries and dance shows. She composed music for films and made experimental pieces in her garage. Suzanne realized she wanted to make music her full-time career. Her first album, Voices of Packaged Souls, came out in 1970. It was a collaboration with sculptor Harold Paris.

Career Highlights

Moving to New York and Jingles

In 1974, Suzanne Ciani moved to New York City. She brought only her clothes and her Buchla synthesizer. She performed solo at the Bonino Gallery. She worked as a session musician, playing on other artists' recordings. In 1978, she started her own company, Ciani/Musica, Inc. This company made jingles for commercials. She created sounds for big companies like Coca-Cola, Merrill Lynch, and General Electric. One of her most famous sounds was the fizz and pour of a Coca-Cola bottle. She also made "logo" sounds for Energizer and ABC.

Guest Appearances and Film Music

Suzanne played as a guest artist on many albums starting in 1976. She added a "swoosh" sound to the song "Afternoon Delight" by the Starland Vocal Band. She also created sound effects for a disco version of the Star Wars soundtrack by Meco. Suzanne composed music for the 1975 film Rainbow's Children. She also created themes for Columbia Pictures and Columbia Pictures Television in 1976.

Pinball and TV Shows

In 1979, Suzanne made sounds for the pinball game Xenon. This game featured her own voice, changed by a special device called a vocoder. It was the first time a female voice was heard in a pinball game. She was put into The Pinball Expo Hall of Fame in 2013 for this work. In 1980, she showed her sound effects on The David Letterman Show. She also appeared on the children's TV show 3-2-1 Contact to show how her synthesizer worked.

Hollywood Films and First Albums

Suzanne composed the music for Lily Tomlin's film The Incredible Shrinking Woman. This made her the first solo female composer for a Hollywood film. In 1982, she released her first studio album, Seven Waves. It was an electronic and new-age music album. She had always wanted to make her own albums. Her 1986 album, The Velocity of Love, has her most famous song, which is also called "The Velocity of Love." This album was also her first to feature her piano playing in many years.

Later Career and New Directions

Her 1990 solo piano album, Pianissimo, became her best-selling album. In 1991, she released Hotel Luna, inspired by her trips to Italy. In 1992, Suzanne wrote and performed a new theme song for the TV show One Life to Live. In 1994, she started her own record label, Seventh Wave. All her albums since then have been released on this label. Her 1994 album Dream Suite was recorded in Moscow and was nominated for a Grammy.

Recent Work and Recognition

In 2006, Suzanne's album Silver Ship won an award for Best New Age Album. In 2015, she received an Achievement Award from Wellesley College. In 2016, she released Buchla Concerts 1975, which featured old live performances. She also collaborated with musician Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith on the album Sunergy in 2016. In 2017, Suzanne became the first woman to receive a Moog Music Innovation Award. In 2018, she released Live Quadraphonic, a live album of her Buchla synthesizer performance. This album was one of the first quadraphonic vinyl records in over 30 years. In 2019, an album she recorded in 1969, Flowers of Evil, was finally released. It featured her playing the Buchla synthesizer with poetry. In 2023, she released Improvisation on Four Sequences, a live recording of her Buchla performance.

Personal Life

In 1992, Suzanne Ciani was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. She recovered after treatment. This led her to move from New York City to California. She has lived in Bolinas, California, ever since.

Awards and Honors

Suzanne Ciani has received many awards for her music and innovation:

• EMEAPP Lifetime Achievement Award, 2024
• Milley Award for Musical Arts, 2023
• SEAMUS Award, 2023
• Herb Alpert Visiting Professorship, 2022-2023
• Golden Ear Award, 2022
• A2IM Independent Icon Award, 2020
• Moog Innovation Award, 2017
• Pinball Expo Hall of Fame, 2013
• Keyboard Magazine's Hall of Fame, 2012
• Nominee, Grammy Award for Best New Age Album: Neverland (1988), Hotel Luna (1991), Dream Suite (1996), Pianissimo II (1997), Turning (2000)
• Best New Age Keyboardist, Keyboard magazine, 1992
• Lifetime Achievement Award (Granny), Women in Audio Section of the Audio and Engineering Society, 1997
• Winner, American Federation of Independent Music (Indie), Silver Ship, 2006
• Most Valuable Synthesizer Player Award, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, 1987
• Clio Awards, Excellence in Advertising, 1977–1989
• Bronze Lion Award for Excellence in Advertising, International Advertising Film Festival, 1985

Discography

Solo Albums

Appearances on Other Albums

DVDs

• 1997 Suzanne Ciani and The Wave Live!
• 2008 Natura Poetica
• 2008 Galapagos: A Musical Odyssey
• 2020 "A Life in Waves" Blu-Ray

Film Scores

• 1981 The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Universal Pictures)
• 1986 Mother Teresa, (Petrie Productions)
• 1986 Cradle of wolves (Mexican novel - Televisa Productions)
• 2001 Mother Teresa: The Legacy (Petrie Productions)

See also

In Spanish: Suzanne Ciani para niños

• List of ambient music artists

Images for kids

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  A Buchla 200 modular synthesizer

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  Ciani performing in 2017