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Sammy Sussman, a University of Michigan sophomore majoring in music composition, also composes well with words.
Two months ago, he became an investigative reporter whose first exposé made an immediate-impact splash and earns fresh praise Sunday.
"Sussman is a 19-year-old . . . who had never written a news article when the campus newspaper published his story documenting four decades of sexual abuse by the renowned chair of the strings department at the university's School of Music, Theatre & Dance," a Detroit Free Press salute says. "The subject of his investigation is now on leave" until he retires in May.
Sammy Sussman: "It’s been a stressful experience." (Photo: sammysussman.com)
The paper's editorial page pays tribute to The Michigan Daily writer for one of 12 examples of "journalism [that] made us jealous in 2018."
In addition, Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) writes twice this month about Sussman's sensational article, published Dec. 10.
The professional journal, based at Columbia University in New York, links to the "in-depth investigation" in a Dec. 12 media roundup and follows up two days later with an interview of the college newsman. It says:
A 6,500-word feature is a feat for any journalist to pull off. It’s another thing altogether for a 19-year old music major who has never written a piece of news in his life to do so with credibility and impact. . . .
Within 48 hours of the piece going live, [Professor Stephen] Shipps, 66, had stepped down from his chairmanship of school’s string department and resigned as director of the Strings Preparatory Academy, a pre-college program at the university.
The teen, who's from the New York City suburb of Bedford in Westchester County, wrote classical music reviews for his campus paper before digging into schoolmates' talk about decades of alleged misbevaior by Shipps. "Once we spoke with [a victim] it became apparent that this story was pressing," he says in the CJR interview.
"It involved 40 years of allegations and numerous victims from multiple institutions. ...
"I began working on the Shipps story near the beginning of October. . . . We cold-called over 50 people. . . .
"The crazy thing is that a lot of the victims knew each other. . . . A whole network existed of people who gossiped about what happened regarding Shipps and tried to tell potential students of his not to study with him because of what happened to them."
The Michigan Daily coverage brought swift action. (Graphic: Casey Tin)
CJR writer Andrew McCormick asks if the undergraduate "caught a bug" for investigative journalism:
"It’s very difficult to say now. It’s been a stressful experience to see the fallout. . . .
"It’s been intense just to walk around school, and I think I need a little separation before I’ll know if I want to do this again. If I did investigate something else, I don’t think I would pick something in the music school. It can be quite uncomfortable."
His non-journalistic comfort zone is as a bassist and composer.
The talented teen, whose website has 15 free SoundCloud files of his works for soloists, choral singers, chamber groups and large ensembles, earned awards from the American Composers Forum and the Foundation for Modern Music. He studied at the New York Youth Symphony Composition Program and the European American Musical Alliance.
At Ann Arbor this year, Sussman taped a video interview to promote the Living Arts housing program, an interdisciplinary residential community in Bursley Hall on North Campus. Here's the two-minute video by Chelsea Heath, who received a UM art and design degree this year:
