Jessica Suchy-Pilalis

Jessica Ray Suchy-Pilalis (born 1954) is an American harpist. She is specialist in the theory and practice of Byzantine chant. Life and career Jessica Suchy-Pilalis was born and grew up in Milwaukee. She became interested in playing the harp when she was in kindergarten. She graduated from Shorewood High School in 1972. Suchy-Pilalis went on to become an honor student at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM). Her mother, Gregoria Karides Suchy, who taught at UWM, was also a composer who has written harp music for her daughter. She received two grants to study Byzantine music and to perform in Greece between 1984 and 1985. During that year, she became a psalti, or cantor, at the Indianapolis Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. She studied Byzantine music at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Theological Seminary with Savas I. Savas and in Greece where she studied primarily with Dimitrios Sourlantzis. In 1988, she received a fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts. She received diplomas with honors in Byzantine Music from two conservatories in Thessaloniki, Greece, and is recognized/certified as an Hieropsalti (Chanter) by both the Greek Orthodox