Emerging into a singularly creative career, Sarah Rommel is a cellist whose rare sincerity and honest musicianship has established her as a sought-after collaborator, educator, and curator. Sarah’s passion for unconventional programming that incites curiosity and her deep commitment to long-standing artistic and human values are branding her as a unique and quietly rising force in the musical landscape.
After capturing Third Prize at the 2014 George Enescu International Cello Competition in Bucharest, Romania, Sarah has given recitals at Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars Showcase, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and across the United States from Maine to Seattle. She has participated in classes at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Academie Musicale de Villecroze in France, and IMS Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England where she has worked closely with distinguished professors such as David Geringas, Gary Hoffman, and Frans Helmerson. Praised for her rich sound and colorful approach to the cello, Sarah’s performances have been reviewed as “dimensional and expansive” and “captivating.”
As a member of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Sarah performs regularly in Boston in addition to having toured with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Musicians from Marlboro. Through chamber music collaborations, Sarah has performed on stages such as Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, the Kennedy Center, the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. International chamber music collaborations have found Sarah touring New Zealand with Chamber Music New Zealand and as an organizer and performer for the SOTA Resonance Festival in Hyderabad, India. Sarah has been invited to perform at festivals such as the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Santa Cruz Chamber Players, Chamber Music Palisades, Chamber Music Sedona, as well as Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars Series, Yellow Barn, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and Marlboro Music Festival. Memorable collaborations include working with composers John Adams, Sofia Gubaidulina, Jennifer Higdon, Steve Mackey, and Kaija Saariaho, pianists Jonathan Biss and Gil Kalish, violinists Lucy Chapman, Pam Frank, Joseph Kim, and Don Weilerstein, and violists Atar Arad, Kim Kashkashian, and Nobuko Imai.
The coming year will see long-standing projects come to fruition, most notably Sarah’s forthcoming Arioso Project, which will culminate in the first commercial recording of a piece written in 1929. “Resurrecting” and accompanying this piece into the present will be five newly commissioned works that will be a reflection on themes of adversity and oppression and the distinct creativity that flows from such circumstances.
Sarah began her musical studies at age nine on piano and was later introduced to the cello through her public school at age twelve. She was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at eighteen years old where she pursued a Bachelor Degree with Peter Wiley. Previous teachers include Efe Baltacigil and Hans Jørgen Jensen. She received her Master’s Degree from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles studying under the tutelage of renowned pedagogue and mentor Ralph Kirshbaum. Sarah is currently Artist-in-Residence and cello faculty at the University of Washington and will also be guest faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for their 2025 Spring Semester.
Based in Seattle, Sarah is a passionate knitter and reader, and enjoys laughing with her partner Jonathan and their dog Rhubarb and cat Laptop.