Susan Ohori

Susan Ohori pioneered the programming of world music on radio from 1972 - 1977 on Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley, with her program Last Chants. She served as Music Director there from 1976 - 1977, when she left the Bay Area to research and record Purepecha folk music in Michoacan, Mexico.

She published "An Introduction to World Music: 100 Records to Start With" in the Next Whole Earth Catalogue.

Moving to Santa Fe in 1980, she produced a weekly 6-hour program of classical music (including contemporary and world) on KUNM, Albuquerque, from 1980 -1982. She was Program Director for the Explorations in Music concert series at the Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, from 1981 - 1985. In1992 she began producing her weekly 3-hour program of world music, Beyond Borders, on KSFR.  In 2002, along with a group of dedicated station volunteers and supporters, she was instrumental in forming the non-profit Northern New Mexico Radio Foundation which won the contract to take over the management and fiscal responsibility of KSFR from Santa Fe Community College. She served on its Board of Directors from 2002 - 2009.

She founded Ohori's Coffee, Tea & Chocolate, a roasting and retail business in 1984 and sold in 2001. She also opened Casa, in 1996, a retail store specializing in folk art.

She was a founding Board member of the Santa Fe Film Festival which she served on for 10 years. She has recently returned to her work on clay sculpture begun in the 1970's.

Email: beyondborders@ksfr.org