Suzy Bassani, our beloved friend and founder of Muse Machine, passed away peacefully last week.
“This started, as many of you know, in my basement, my darlings, all those years ago,” said Suzy at a previous Muse gathering. “Never would I have dreamt all this would happen. I look around and I think, do you realize how fortunate we are to have such a beautiful community as we have here in Dayton?”
When Suzy moved from Italy to Dayton with her husband Pino, she didn’t see many young people in audiences at live performances.
“You know, I have to tell you that when I first started Muse Machine, the whole idea was that if we could train one teacher who could teach using the arts… appreciate the arts… that teacher could pass it on to hundreds of students. So many young people who are now much older, they’ve got children and they were in Muse Machine. And you know, it’s changed their lives.”
More than 40 years and hundreds of thousands of young people later, Suzy’s dream thrives, spreading joyful discovery and creative learning across western Ohio and beyond.
Curtiss Cook appeared in Muse’s first musical, was mentored by Suzy and has lived a life on stage and screen, including films with Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. “Without Mrs. Suzy, the journey of my career would not have started as it did. Her love, understanding and support shaped the actor I am today.”
On the day of Suzy’s passing, teaching and performing artists were at multiple schools interacting with hundreds of students. A group of Muse teachers convened to share creative classroom successes. Our neighbors, the Human Race Theatre Company (also founded by Suzy), were at work on their upcoming production. The student cast of our next musical gathered to rehearse in our studio.
During that one day, teachers, artists, families and more than a thousand students created, learned, sang, danced and unknowingly celebrated Suzy – forever our muse – in the most beautifully appropriate ways imaginable.
Enjoy this performance of a song composed by a Muse alumnus in celebration of Suzy.
Donations in Suzy’s memory
The Bassani family has suggested that donations in Suzy’s memory may be made to support the endowment fund or scholarship detailed at the link below:
Donate