Sarah Kapps, cello
Cellist Sarah Kapps has an active and diverse career that has taken her across North America, through Europe and into the Middle East. First Prize winner of the 2002 Donna Turner Smith competition, she is not only a performer of classical music. She has also taken part in experimental, rock, and improvisatory performances that have featured her in an eclectic variety of venues. From CBGB’s to Carnegie Hall, Sarah Kapps has enjoyed sharing the stage with such legendary performers as Johnny Mathis and Yo Yo Ma.
A Native Philadelphian, Ms. Kapps has most recently been living in the Rio Grande Valley and teaches at The University of Texas Pan-American, and is regularly Co-Principle of the Valley Symphony Orchestra. In summers, she is a member of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra in Virginia, where she also teaches at the Wintergreen Summer Music Academy. She has also taught with the Delaware Valley Arts Institute through St. Joseph’s University in an effort to bring the arts into schools more effectively. Soloist, chamber musician and orchestral member, she has also been a member of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and The Fort Smith Symphony (where she has been a returning soloist). She has been a founding member of the Denali String Quartet with whom she has traveled internationally and is a former member of the Ouluska Pass Chamber Music Festival, and the Absolute Ensemble, based in New York City. Highlights include performances with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Electric Light Orchestra, Joni Mitchell, and Anne Murray.
Sarah Kapps has attended such prestigious schools as the Manhattan School of Music, The Mannes College of Music and The University of Oklahoma. She has been lucky enough to study with Peter Wiley of the Guarneri Quartet, Paul Tobias, and has performed in master classes with several major string quartets in addition to Tim Eddy and Robert Mann. She performs on an English cello by Thomas Dodd (ca. 1800).
