My Story
|
Dr. Sarah K. Crocker is a professional harpist and musicologist performing solo, chamber, and orchestral music and lecturing throughout the United States and beyond. Based in Franklin, TN, Dr. Crocker is Adjunct Professor of Harp at Middle Tennessee State University and Lipscomb University, Owner of Hillnote Music and Director of the Hillnote Harp Academy, and harp faculty at the TN Governor’s School of the Arts. Previous teaching positions include Interim Adjunct Professor of Harp at Belmont University, Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at Kentucky Institute for International Studies, and Instructor of Ethnomusicology and Secondary Harp at The University of Alabama. Sarah serves on the Editorial Board of The American Harp Journal, the Board of Directors of the American Harp Society, Inc. as Regional Director Coordinator and Southern Regional Director, and the Vice President and Webmaster of the Nashville Chapter. She has previously served on the Executive Committee of the AHS and as President of the Nashville Chapter (2014-2019).
|
Dr. Crocker has been the principal harp of the Tennessee Philharmonic Orchestra since 2013 and the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra since 2006, where she made her debut as a soloist performing Debussy’s Danses. Crocker also performs regularly as principal or substitute principal harp with many orchestras and wind ensembles across the Southeast, including the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Kentucky, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Wind Ensemble, and she was principal harp of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra from 2005-2013 until moving to TN. Sarah is also in demand as harpist for numerous regional concert bands, choirs, churches, and performs and coordinates customized music for events as the Owner of Hillnote Weddings & Events.
Having a love for chamber music, Crocker founded the Druid City Ensemble with flutist Dr. Whitney O'Neal and soprano Dr. Dawn Neely in 2010. Hailed as "truly inspiring," the ensemble has been honored to appear as featured performers at venues and music festivals across the United States, including the Second Saturday Concert Series at the St. James Chapel in Chicago, National Flute Convention in San Diego, American Harp Society Summer Institute in Winston-Salem, Mid-South and Kentucky Flute Festivals, Southeastern Composers League Forum, and with the Alabama Contemporary Ensemble, and is in demand to present recitals and masterclasses at universities across the country. As enthusiastic proponents of contemporary music, the group has commissioned and premiered six new works for soprano, flute, and harp set to be recorded on their first album.
In addition to teaching and performing, Dr. Crocker sells, rents, and services pedal and lever harps through her company Hillnote Music and has a passion for teaching and researching both harp and musicology. Sarah has presented lecture-recitals about her research on harpist-composers Henriette Renié, Alphonse Hasselmans and his family, and Pierre Jamet at the 2017 Music by Women Festival, 2014 & 2016 American Harp Society National Conferences in New Orleans and Atlanta, the University of Alabama, and for the Central Gulf Coast and Nashville Chapters of the American Harp Society 2020 and 2018. Her dissertation “The Descriptive Miniatures of Alphonse Hasselmans and Henriette Renié: An Examination of the Pedagogical and Artistic Significance of Salon Pieces for Harp” was nominated for the Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award. In addition to Hasselmans and Renié, Crocker’s research interests include music’s intersection with French and German culture, politics, and gender identities in the 19th and 20th centuries and the post-WWI and WII avant-garde movements in Europe and America.
Dr. Crocker holds a B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. in Harp Performance with Musicology cognate from the University of Alabama.
She has studied harp with Judith Sullivan-Hicks, Mary Brigid Roman, Katie Buckley, Carol McClure, and Judy Loman. When she is not performing or teaching, Sarah enjoys leading the Williamson County Kappa Alpha Theta Alumnae Circle, cooking, gardening, reading, and being outdoors with her dog, Pippy.
Having a love for chamber music, Crocker founded the Druid City Ensemble with flutist Dr. Whitney O'Neal and soprano Dr. Dawn Neely in 2010. Hailed as "truly inspiring," the ensemble has been honored to appear as featured performers at venues and music festivals across the United States, including the Second Saturday Concert Series at the St. James Chapel in Chicago, National Flute Convention in San Diego, American Harp Society Summer Institute in Winston-Salem, Mid-South and Kentucky Flute Festivals, Southeastern Composers League Forum, and with the Alabama Contemporary Ensemble, and is in demand to present recitals and masterclasses at universities across the country. As enthusiastic proponents of contemporary music, the group has commissioned and premiered six new works for soprano, flute, and harp set to be recorded on their first album.
In addition to teaching and performing, Dr. Crocker sells, rents, and services pedal and lever harps through her company Hillnote Music and has a passion for teaching and researching both harp and musicology. Sarah has presented lecture-recitals about her research on harpist-composers Henriette Renié, Alphonse Hasselmans and his family, and Pierre Jamet at the 2017 Music by Women Festival, 2014 & 2016 American Harp Society National Conferences in New Orleans and Atlanta, the University of Alabama, and for the Central Gulf Coast and Nashville Chapters of the American Harp Society 2020 and 2018. Her dissertation “The Descriptive Miniatures of Alphonse Hasselmans and Henriette Renié: An Examination of the Pedagogical and Artistic Significance of Salon Pieces for Harp” was nominated for the Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award. In addition to Hasselmans and Renié, Crocker’s research interests include music’s intersection with French and German culture, politics, and gender identities in the 19th and 20th centuries and the post-WWI and WII avant-garde movements in Europe and America.
Dr. Crocker holds a B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. in Harp Performance with Musicology cognate from the University of Alabama.
She has studied harp with Judith Sullivan-Hicks, Mary Brigid Roman, Katie Buckley, Carol McClure, and Judy Loman. When she is not performing or teaching, Sarah enjoys leading the Williamson County Kappa Alpha Theta Alumnae Circle, cooking, gardening, reading, and being outdoors with her dog, Pippy.