By Michelle A.L. Singer
Originally run in The Montpelier Bridge on March 20, 2008

Michael Sucher, 49, piano and keyboard player and composer, died March 8 at his home of complications from lung cancer. He worked with many area musicians and groups, including the Sandra Wright Band and Mighty Sam McClain. While known primarily as a keyboardist, he also played guitar, bass and harmonica, and sang. He was also a music teacher and an accredited practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, a form of body awareness through movement.

Photo by Rosa Mumaghan

Sucher grew up in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he learned to play the guitar and formed his first musical group, Theory in Practice, with several high school classmates. He attended the University of Maryland, where he majored in both electrical engineering and music, studying piano with jazz keyboardist Ron Ellison. After obtaining a B.S. in engineering, he worked as a software engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and later at several private firms in Maryland and Vermont. At the same time, he played music professionally.

Michael was a founding member of the legendary D.C. progressive jazz group Rush Hour and appeared and recorded with many Washington area musicians including the late great guitarist Danny Gatton, blues guitarist Tom Principato, and later with Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist Tim Eyermann's East Coast Offering.

In 1995 he married Carol Hausner. Michael and Carol moved to Fairlee, VT in 1996 and later to Montpelier. Their daughter, Rachel, was born in 1999. Rachel says of her father, "He is the best joker, musician, and dad that there was, that there is, and that there ever will be." Carol adds that Michael lives on in his music. "You can sense him through his recordings, and that will continue on. People will carry memories of him as a teacher, the way he sent his students out into the world excited about music. He was an amazing dad, and musician, his gifts have rippled out to many people and places."

After moving to Vermont, Michael worked with the Sandra Wright Band, with whom he co-produced the CD "After Hours," featuring saxophonist Big Joe Burrell. "He was a very talented young man, very talented," says Wright. "He had a great gift of knowing what to play and how to play it, how to express it. It made you feel very comfortable if you're a singer. He loved music. We used to always have fun, always laughing. He's a sweetheart. It's a loss to the world, and to his family and friends."

In 2001, he released a CD of solo piano improvisations, "Fingerpaintings," which received critical praise. Sucher's website, www.michaelsucher.com, includes this review from William Funsch of Big Heavy World, "The composing and recording of the album were simultaneous, documenting Sucher's craft as it is born, a stunning achievement of spontaneity and spirit." "Fingerpaintings" and "After Hours" are available in downtown Montpelier at Buch Spieler.

In the summer of 2004, Michael toured Europe with two-time Grammy-nominated soul and blues artist Mighty Sam McClain and was part of his band. McClain says he only knew Michael for a short time, but "He was a sweet, sweet, sweet spirit. The last time he played with the band, I had the hardest time saying goodbye to him. I couldn't stop crying. This was in the middle of the set! I just couldn't stop, it was painful for me to have him leave. He was a wonderful human, it's a great loss to everybody and I give my condolences to his family and friends. It was a privilege to have him pass through my life, he made my life and my music brighter. God Bless Michael Sucher."

Sucher worked with many musicians, including Mike Bernal, Allison Mann, John McGale, Ellen Powell, and Diana Winn. Bernal says, "I don't think Michael ever played a wrong note and if he did he played it really well. The support that he gave to the band was always fantastic. He was the guy who reminded you that the small things were just that, small things. Musically speaking, he was one of the finest players I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Personally speaking, he was a great great man, he cared a lot about the people he played with."

Diana Winn, of Rebop Records, says, "He was a combination of being one of the most competent, technically talented, musicians around and expressive—he put his soul into it. He was able to work with other people, he was a good teacher but also a good listener—he brought people out. He was versatile, playing all kinds of styles and a composer. Just an amazing person and musician, a gentle soul, easy to be around and work with. We all want to keep a part of him close to us. I still have two or three songs we were working on together. I feel so lucky to have those kernels. When I continue to work with them, he will be there."

In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by his parents, Joe and Dorothy Sucher of Cabot, VT and Silver Spring, MD, his brother Gabriel of Rockville, MD, and his brother Anatol and his brother's wife Ann Rasmussen of San Francisco, CA. Michael was predeceased by his sister, Anne.

A memorial service will take place at a later date. Dave Keller, one of the musicians who will gather to celebrate Michael through music at the service, says of Sucher, "Mike had both a complete mastery of the piano, and an amazing ability to play directly from his heart. Some people have one, or the other, but it's so rare to see both. For example, he could play songs perfectly after only hearing them once. I'm talking about obscure soul tunes with weird little riffs and difficult chord voicings. To be able to do that is incredible enough, but when it came time for a solo, he would lean back, head facing the ceiling, close his eyes, and just completely rip it up. Right from the heart. You'd be watching him right there in front of you, but you knew he was somewhere else altogether. Everyone I know thought Mike was, first of all, just a wonderful, sweet guy, but also a real genius on the keys. I'm going to really miss him."