Sarah Willis (hornist)

Sarah Willis is a British–American hornist and the first female player in the Berlin Philharmonic brass section. She also regularly acts as a television presenter.

Life

Sarah Willis' father worked as an Australian foreign correspondent in the United States and her mother wrote newspaper articles as a dance critic. She grew up in Tokyo, Boston, Moscow and finally in England. At the age of 14 she took up the French horn studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and with horn player Fergus McWilliam.

In 1991 she was one of the first professional musicians from the West to work in Berlin as a member of the Staatskapelle Berlin and under Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera. In 2001, she was accepted as horn player in the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle and was the first woman in that position.

Willis is also a guest in other various orchestras, notably the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition Willis is involved in many projects. In 2011 she was the presenter for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra in addition to horn tutor for the orchestra's horn section. She also designed and moderates the family concerts of the Berlin Philharmonic, acts as a moderator in the Education Programme of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and regularly interviews conductors and soloists for the Digital Concert Hall. Willis operates a horn community on Facebook and interviewed on Google Hangouts other musicians.

Weblinks


References

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, September 11, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.