Su Callan
vocals, flute, penny whistle, guitar, and bodhran
sucallan@sympatico.ca

     Su, being Dawn’s sister, oddly enough has a somewhat similar beginning to Dawn’s.  Her love of music began in all of the small Ontario Towns that Dawn lived in (no surprise here) and with the piano and choral lessons of early childhood.  The differences come as Su’s smoky alto tones turned up very early, and so she started out focusing on voice for the first 15 years of   her musical training.

      It was the introduction of large town life (Kingston) and attendance at Queen’s University that really kicked off Su’s interest in folk, Celtic and Canadian music.  While attending Queen’s as a Drama/English student, she began playing wind instruments with the Kingston Ceili Band, and eventually wound up being the musical director for the band for 3 years. Her time with the ceili band was punctuated by several great associations that went on to figure highly in her musical career, as it was here that Su and Jan Singleton first met and then became partners for the next 10 years in Jan and Su Productions, a musical duo and event planning team, and Silver Service, a catering firm.  

     With Dawn’s return to Ontario’s sunny shores in 1990, Gopher Baroque was created as a trio featuring Dawn Callan, Su Callan and Jan Singleton.  This trio is musical “home” for Su and only suffered interruption during the raising of Su’s twins, when she took some time off.  Even then she was busy with volunteer music, teaching and working with Girl Guides of Canada in several regional and provincial events as a Music and Drama Trainer on the Provincial Arts Team.

     During all of this wonderful musical experience and the raising of Su’s twin daughters (now adults) there was time for a BA in Drama/English from Queen’s University, some teaching, an RPN diploma, and several years of geriatric nursing administration before returning to full time music.