Sarah cunningham
Sarah Cunningham is recognized as one of the foremost viol players worldwide. She trained at Harvard, the Longy School of Music, with Wieland Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory in
The Netherlands, and Marleen Montgomery, director of the legendary Quadrivium. She was
co-founder, with Jeanne Lemon and Robert Hill, of Musick for the Generall Peace, with Mary Springfels and Wendy Gillespie, of Les Filles de Saint Colombe. She moved to London in 1981 and founded, with Monica Huggett and Mitzi Meyerson, Trio Sonnerie, recording most of the important chamber music for violin and viol, and touring on four continents. She also performed and recorded with Fretwork, Hesperion XX, Phantasm, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, The English Concert, Les Arts Florissants, among other groups. She is a member of the Philadelphia-based Sylvan Viols.
She was invited by Sir James Galway to collaborate on his recordings and concert tours, in Europe and the USA, of Bach’s flute music. A double CD of solo viol music entitled “Play This Passionate”, as well as the complete Bach gamba sonatas with Richard Egarr, have received international acclaim, and she has appeared as recitalist from Helsinki to Vancouver. As concerto soloist she recorded works by Telemann with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
She teaches at The Juilliard School, and has taught at Princeton University, the Hochschule fuer Kuenste, Bremen, Germany, the Guildhall School of Music, London, and the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki.
Her fascination with improvisation has led to collaborations with dancers, poets and story-tellers. Her 2016 degree from Bryn Mawr College, in Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance, brought together visual art, creative writing, dance, and music.