Alumni Feature

Eleven years ago, Franklin alum Suzanne Voth Gorman first picked up a guitar and began to write songs. She has now recently released her first nationally distributed album, “Open Book,” which has a winning single hit at the top of the music industry charts.

Suzanne’s musical career began unexpectedly when a lifetime of horseback riding and dreams of making it to the world level of dressage were shattered by a spinal injury. She  transformed the tragedy into a blessing when she was inspired to turn to the guitar after her accident. Suzanne started playing at local events in Nashville, where she lived, and writing songs for her own enjoyment. She later decided to expand, forming a band and holding concerts in Philadelphia.

As Suzanne began to make her way on the music scene, she found herself sharing the stage with Skunk Baxter from the Doobie Brothers and opening for James Taylor. After her successes in performing and songwriting, she was signed on by an independent label based in Philadelphia and in 2006 released her debut CD, “Open Book,” with Range Records. One of the album songs, “Heartbreaker,” climbed the national charts to number eight, right up there with well-known singers and bands like Kelly Clarkson and Rascal Flatts.

“I found my God-given talent,” says Suzanne, “a gift to which I wake up every morning pinching myself, knowing that I have written over 200 songs and have so much under my skin to be thankful for.”

While at Franklin, Suzanne had not yet discovered her musical potential. “I always had a song in my head that I was humming or belting out in the shower,” she admits, but beyond a few showings at El Grotto with friends, she regarded music as simply an enjoyable pastime. However, Suzanne cites her time at Franklin as a very important experience that helped set her on her musical path and says, “ Franklin gave me, even in a short period of time, some of the most important and valuable tools in my life.”

It was Suzanne’s first time in Europe when she ventured to Lugano in 1974 for a semester at Franklin. She came with an open mind and was interested in European history; she took German and history classes, and went to Germany for Academic Travel with her favorite professor, Frau Holman. Suzanne looks back at her Franklin experience as a time of stimulation, of founding strong cross-cultural friendships, and of preparation for taking on the world. “My time at Franklin was priceless,” says Suzanne. “Like anything in life, when you taste or touch or feel something new, when you open yourself up to learning, the prize is what you take with you afterward each and every step of the way.”

At the core of Suzanne’s success are her openness to change and a constant willingness to learn from the lessons change often brings. She believes in focusing on what she has, not on what she doesn’t have. Now, with her music career going strong, Suzanne is looking for ways to give back to the world. She recently held an event that raised a large sum of money to support a young boy in need of extensive medical care. “I want my music to take wings, to find its way out there so I can make a difference one day at a time,” she says.

Suzanne now lives in Wayne, Pa. She has many plans for the future, including performing a new, internationally recognized song at the World Peace Tour 4 Children event in Namibia along with big names like U2 and Whitney Houston, and says, “I am 60 percent songwriter and the rest is the mere fact that I love to give concerts and express my music on stage.”