Violinist Sarah Wood performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader. Internationally, she has performed in Canada, Austria, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, Hungary, Tunisia, and Chile. She is a founding member of the Circadian String Quartet (2013-2016) and a regular substitute with the San Francisco Symphony.
A dedicated educator, Sarah has taught violin, viola and chamber music for 20 years. Currently she maintains a private studio in the Bay Area. Summer finds her teaching chamber music at the Zephyr Point Chamber Music Retreat in Lake Tahoe. From 2014-2016 she was on faculty at the Crowden School, and from 2009-2012 she served as Lina Bahn’s Teaching Assistant at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is a certified Suzuki Method teacher for Books 1 through 8, and has also intensively studied the pedagogies of Paul Rolland and Kato Havas.
Sarah earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in violin performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she studied with Lina Bahn and Takacs String Quartet violinist Karoly Schranz. She also holds a B.M. and M.M. in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she was a student of Paul Kantor & William Preucil, and studied chamber music with the Cavani String Quartet and Peter Salaff. She studied Baroque violin at the Tafelmusik Summer Institute and with Mimi Mitchell in the Netherlands. A California native, she has also worked with Zaven Melikian, Robin Sharp, and Cathy van Hoesen. Since 2018 she has also been a participant of several of Nathan Cole's highly regarded professional courses.
As part of her doctoral thesis, she collaborated with the organization Violinist in Balance at the HKU Utrechts Conservatorium in the Netherlands to design and build ergonomic violin equipment. She has since led workshops on the ergonomics of chin rests, most notably at the European String Teacher's Association International Conference in Oxford, U.K. Currently, Sarah custom fits chin rests and shoulder rests to the player which are then 3D printed.
Sarah is training to become a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique with George Lister and Giora Pinkas, and will complete the 1600 hour course certified through AmSAT in 2023. She has also studied Body Mapping with Jennifer Johnson and Amy Likar. These practices are incorporated into her teaching and playing as methods for injury prevention, stress management, and performance enhancement.
Sarah has served in leadership roles for several arts organizations as the director of the Foothill Chamber Music Concert Series, co-Director of the Baroque group Ensemble Pearl, as an elected member of the players' committe for Music in the Mountains Summer Festival, and as a founding member of the Circadian String Quartet.
Sarah is fortunate to have recieved grant funding for many of her projects, including the Beverly Sears Grant, the Olgilvy Travel Grant, the Rocky Mountain Institute for International Education, the Allied Arts of Denver Scholarship, the New Venture Challenge Winner for best music business plan (Ensemble Pearl), as well as awards for her playing.
A dedicated educator, Sarah has taught violin, viola and chamber music for 20 years. Currently she maintains a private studio in the Bay Area. Summer finds her teaching chamber music at the Zephyr Point Chamber Music Retreat in Lake Tahoe. From 2014-2016 she was on faculty at the Crowden School, and from 2009-2012 she served as Lina Bahn’s Teaching Assistant at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is a certified Suzuki Method teacher for Books 1 through 8, and has also intensively studied the pedagogies of Paul Rolland and Kato Havas.
Sarah earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in violin performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she studied with Lina Bahn and Takacs String Quartet violinist Karoly Schranz. She also holds a B.M. and M.M. in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she was a student of Paul Kantor & William Preucil, and studied chamber music with the Cavani String Quartet and Peter Salaff. She studied Baroque violin at the Tafelmusik Summer Institute and with Mimi Mitchell in the Netherlands. A California native, she has also worked with Zaven Melikian, Robin Sharp, and Cathy van Hoesen. Since 2018 she has also been a participant of several of Nathan Cole's highly regarded professional courses.
As part of her doctoral thesis, she collaborated with the organization Violinist in Balance at the HKU Utrechts Conservatorium in the Netherlands to design and build ergonomic violin equipment. She has since led workshops on the ergonomics of chin rests, most notably at the European String Teacher's Association International Conference in Oxford, U.K. Currently, Sarah custom fits chin rests and shoulder rests to the player which are then 3D printed.
Sarah is training to become a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique with George Lister and Giora Pinkas, and will complete the 1600 hour course certified through AmSAT in 2023. She has also studied Body Mapping with Jennifer Johnson and Amy Likar. These practices are incorporated into her teaching and playing as methods for injury prevention, stress management, and performance enhancement.
Sarah has served in leadership roles for several arts organizations as the director of the Foothill Chamber Music Concert Series, co-Director of the Baroque group Ensemble Pearl, as an elected member of the players' committe for Music in the Mountains Summer Festival, and as a founding member of the Circadian String Quartet.
Sarah is fortunate to have recieved grant funding for many of her projects, including the Beverly Sears Grant, the Olgilvy Travel Grant, the Rocky Mountain Institute for International Education, the Allied Arts of Denver Scholarship, the New Venture Challenge Winner for best music business plan (Ensemble Pearl), as well as awards for her playing.
| sarah_wood_short_bio_2022.pdf |
