Fate would dictate that Susan Cross was born exactly 100 years after her great-grandfather Simon O’Reilly emigrated from Ireland to the United States in the black year of 1847. Most of her relatives on the Riley side enjoyed singing and playing music in family gatherings.

Susan recalls music being on the family turntable at all times except when it was being played on instruments by Susan and her siblings. Susan started on the violin at age 9 and played classically until the age of 30. During that time she played in the Central Kentucky Youth Symphony Orchestra in Lexington, the Kentucky All-State Orchestra, the Gettysburg, PA and Annapolis, MD Symphony Orchestras.

One day she heard the Doobie Brothers on the radio and was struck by the fact there was a violin in the band. So over the course of the next few years, she played rock music, then Bluegrass, then Appalachian Old-Time, and still in her early thirties, discovered traditional Irish music and was hooked.

Lexington,Kentucky had no native-born Irish musicians so Susan traveled to workshops and sought out Irish fiddlers wherever she could find them. She moved to nearby Cincinnati and enjoyed sessions with the few traditional Irish musicians there like Phil McGing of Co. Mayo.The Irish music community in the Cincinnati area didn't have the critical mass, of Irish emigrants, so that by the 1970's Irish music in Cincinnati had all but died out.

Undeterred, Susan helped form the Celtic band, Silver Arm, and played with the band for the next 12 years, recording and performing at festivals and in 1996, Susan founded the Riley School of Irish Music in honor of her mother, Elsie Riley Goodman.

The school was founded on the following: education before money, community before personal pride, and growth for all. The school built its teachers locally from the ground up and flourished with students winning prizes at the Mid-West Regional Fleadh Cheoil. Two of it's students have gone on to win 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the All-Ireland Fleadh.The Craobh Riley branch of Comhaltas was formed a few years after the founding of the school by Daniel Curtin and continues to operate in tandem.

Through the efforts of Susan Cross, the Riley School has created a vibrant traditional Irish music community in the Cincinnati area. There are now more than enough musicians to supply two separate popular weekly pub sessions and at St. Patrick’s festivities, to both perform in the parade AND perform at the Museum Center at the same time!

Susan can go all night in a session, but at the start of every tune she will say, “Now how does that go?” She still teaches regularly at the Riley School and performs with the band Dark Moll.