Sarah Hooton is a young emerging artist and teacher in San Francisco. She recently completed her Master of Music in Viola Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and is excited to add her wealth of performance knowledge into her teaching at Little Mission Studio.

 

Growing up in Cairns, Australia, Sarah began learning violin when she was 9 years old. Her first experiences in ensemble playing were with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Queensland Symphony Orchestra, participating in student workshops throughout her schooling. She also competed in the local Eisteddfod each year and competed at the national level, placing 2nd in the Australian Vocal and Concerto Competition in 2015. After moving to Brisbane to obtain her Bachelor of Music at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, she discovered the sweet mellow sounds of the viola and decided to make the switch. Sarah now plays the viola full-time but still picks up the violin from time to time.

 

In addition to orchestra, Sarah particularly loves the intimacy of Chamber Music and was selected to play in the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival in Leavenworth (Washington, USA) in July, 2019. To satisfy her never-ending love for collaborative music-making, she has also worked as a violist with Camerata Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, and was invited to perform as a guest violist with the Endeavour Trio in November of 2018. Now in San Francisco, Sarah is Co-Founder of a new group called The Bridge Music Collective.

 

As equally passionate about teaching as she is performing, Sarah was part of the faculty at Music Creators (located in Underwood, Brisbane) for 5 years, teaching violin and viola. After moving to San Francisco, she worked as a Teaching Artist in the Bridge To Arts and Music program (BAM) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to help bring music education to children who don’t get the opportunity to learn music at their own schools. After teaching for more than 6 years, Sarah has learned to adapt her teaching style to each individual student, bringing her emotional intelligence and sensitivity to meet her technical and detailed approach.

 

Outside of the music realm, she has also been practicing Yoga for several years and is currently obtaining her 200hr Yoga Teacher Training in the hopes to educate fellow musicians on body awareness and injury prevention to improve musicians’ lives inside and outside of the practice room.