Dr. Sarah Hamilton is Associate Professor of Oboe at the State University of New York at Fredonia, where she is chair of Performance and a longtime member of the touring Fredonia Woodwind Quintet. She is principal oboe with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra and solo English Horn with the Erie Philharmonic. She has also performed regularly with Bach and Beyond, the Chautauqua Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic. Sarah has appeared as a soloist most recently with the Orchard Park Symphony (on bass oboe), the Erie Philharmonic, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, the Fredonia College Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, and at conventions of the International Double Reed Society. She began her professional career as 2nd oboe and English horn with the Windsor (Ontario) Symphony.
Sarah has given many presentations on making the oboe more accessible in public school programs at New York State, Erie County, Chautauqua County, and Ontario, Canada music teacher association conferences. Her method book, Oboe Tuning Duets (video) has recently been published by Mountainpeak Music, and she is co-author of the oboe chapter of Teaching Woodwinds, an online woodwind method book published by Mountainpeak Music in 2014.
Recently on sabbatical, she was able to devote time exploring her fascination in the diversity of the oboe community and the new classical music paradigm. From this research, she created the presentation Finding your Way as a 21st Century Performing Musician.
Sarah holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Ohio State University and a Master of Music degree from Wayne State University where she studied with former Detroit Symphony oboist Robert Sorton. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Western Ontario where her teachers included Shelley Heron, Geralyn Giovannetti and Perry Baumen. She began her studies with Lawrence Cherney in Toronto, Canada.
Photo by Lori Deemer