Sarah Cranor

Sarah Elizabeth Cranor, violin

Violinist Sarah Cranor is a native of Colorado. She is currently a pursing her DM in Historical Performance, violin, at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. She holds two masters degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder, one in pedagogy and one in violin performance where she studied with Charles Wetherbee, Lina Bahn, and Karoly Schranz of the Takacs Quartet. For her undergraduate work, Sarah attended Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, and graduated from the Honors Program, magna cum laude, with a degree in Violin Performance and a minor in Piano Performance. Her senior thesis entitled "'Secret Sinful Converse with Dissonance?' In Defense of Schoenberg's Music" was published in the journal Anamnesis in May, 2007. After graduation, Sarah was selected as an Apprentice for Shar Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while she studied with Yehonatan Berick and performed as a freelance orchestral musician.
She recently traveled to Germany with the Junges Stuttgarter Bach Ensemble under the baton of Helmuth Rilling to perform JS Bach’s St. John Passion in Stuttgart and Eisenach, and with the Bach Cantata Academy in Weimar in association Thuringen Bachwochen. She is passionate about teaching early music and historical performance practice, as well as orchestral and chamber music from all style periods. She stresses the importance of spending time performing and studying music from living composers as well, advocating for current compositions to be played by all levels of students. Her most recent project was producing and performing “Strings for Kinshasa”: a benefit concert for the Kinshasa Symphony in the Congo, to raise money to purchase violin, viola and cello strings for the adult symphony and the newly-formed youth orchestra. In her time away from music she enjoys fishing with her golden retriever Abbie and whitewater kayaking.

She also runs a successful small business: Sarah's Violin Bags, sewing handmade violin bags for violinists and violists seeking extra protection for their instrument from temperature and humidity fluctuations.