American cellist Sarah Rommel is a recent top prizewinner in the George Enescu International Cello Competition and Beverly Hills National Auditions. She has been the recipient of several awards and grants including a Williamson Foundation Grant, Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Grant, Anna Sosenko Trust Grant, and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artists Award, which led to a subsequent appearance on NPR’s “From the Top”.
Sarah has given solo performances and recitals in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Seattle, Aspen, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, France, England, and Italy, in addition to having made her solo orchestral debut in Bucharest, Romania with the George Enescu Philharmonic. She has actively participated in classes at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Academie Musicale de Villecroze, and IMS Prussia Cove. She has worked closely with distinguished professors such as David Geringas, Gary Hoffman, Frans Helmerson, Carter Brey, Paul Katz, and members of the Emerson, St. Lawrence, Orion, and Takács Quartets in master classes.
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Sarah won the silver medal in the 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as a member of the Newman Quartet. She has been invited to perform at festivals such as Music from Angel Fire, NM, Music in May Festival, Santa Cruz Chamber Players, Chamber Music Palisades, as well as Ravinia’s Steans Institute of Music and Marlboro Music Festival. During the summer of 2013, Sarah joined the Antipodes String Trio for their concert tour of New Zealand under the auspices of Chamber Music New Zealand. Sarah has collaborated with composer John Adams in concert at the Kennedy Center and has most recently collaborated with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, and the Guarneri, Cleveland, and Orion String Quartets.
Sarah began her musical studies on the piano at age nine and was later introduced to the cello at age twelve. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she pursued a Bachelor of Music degree under the tutelage of Peter Wiley. Previous teachers include Efe Baltacigil and Hans Jørgen Jensen. She currently studies with Ralph Kirshbaum at USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.