Violinist Sarah Wood has appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Philharmonic, the San Francisco Civic Symphony, the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, and the Villa Sinfonia, Panache, and Icicle Creek Chamber Orchestras. Internationally, she has performed in Canada, Austria, Germany, the United Kindgom, the Netherlands, Hungary, Tunisia, and on Easter Island. She is a founding member of the Circadian String Quartet (2013-2016), a Bay Area group well known for their inventive and intense programming.
As an orchestral leader, Sarah has served as concertmaster for the Auburn Symphony and has held tenured positions as Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Berkeley Symphony, acting Assistant Concertmaster with the California Symphony, Principal Second with the Greeley Philharmonic, and section violinist with the Boulder Philharmonic. She currently is a regular substitute violinist with the San Francisco Symphony, and most recently won a position with the San Jose Symphony.
A dedicated educator, Sarah has taught violin, viola and chamber music for over 20 years. From 2009-2012 she served as Lina Bahn’s Teaching Assistant at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and from 2014-2016 she was on faculty at the Crowden School. She is a certified Suzuki Method teacher, having earned her certification with the legendary pedagogue Dr. William Starr.
Sarah earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in violin performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she studied with Lina Bahn and 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. 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 violinist 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.
Sarah completed here AmSAT certified training in the Alexander Technique in 2022 at the Alexander Education Center in Berkeley, CA. She has assisted teaching classes at the San Francisco Conservatory Collegiate, Preparatory and Continuing Education departments, and the practices of the Technique 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, as well as with 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.
As an orchestral leader, Sarah has served as concertmaster for the Auburn Symphony and has held tenured positions as Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Berkeley Symphony, acting Assistant Concertmaster with the California Symphony, Principal Second with the Greeley Philharmonic, and section violinist with the Boulder Philharmonic. She currently is a regular substitute violinist with the San Francisco Symphony, and most recently won a position with the San Jose Symphony.
A dedicated educator, Sarah has taught violin, viola and chamber music for over 20 years. From 2009-2012 she served as Lina Bahn’s Teaching Assistant at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and from 2014-2016 she was on faculty at the Crowden School. She is a certified Suzuki Method teacher, having earned her certification with the legendary pedagogue Dr. William Starr.
Sarah earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in violin performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she studied with Lina Bahn and 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. 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 violinist 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.
Sarah completed here AmSAT certified training in the Alexander Technique in 2022 at the Alexander Education Center in Berkeley, CA. She has assisted teaching classes at the San Francisco Conservatory Collegiate, Preparatory and Continuing Education departments, and the practices of the Technique 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, as well as with 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 |
