Sarah Rommel is a cellist whose sincerity and honest musicianship have established her as a sought-after collaborator, educator, and curator. Ms. Rommel’s passion for unconventional programming that incites curiosity, as well as her deep commitment to long-standing artistic and human values, brand her as a unique and quietly rising force in the musical landscape.

After capturing Third Prize at the 2014 George Enescu International Cello Competition in Bucharest, Romania, Ms. Rommel has given recitals at Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars Showcase, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and across the United States from Maine to Seattle. She has participated in classes at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Academie Musicale de Villecroze in France, and IMS Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England, where she has worked closely with distinguished professors such as David Geringas, Gary Hoffman, and Frans Helmerson. Praised for her rich sound and colorful approach to the cello, her performances have been reviewed as “dimensional and expansive” and “captivating.”

Ms. Rommel performs regularly as a member of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston and has toured with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Musicians from Marlboro. Through chamber music collaborations, she has performed on stages such as Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, the Kennedy Center, the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. International chamber music collaborations have found her touring New Zealand with Chamber Music New Zealand and as an organizer and performer for the SOTA Resonance Festival in Hyderabad, India. Ms. Rommel has been invited to perform at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Santa Cruz Chamber Players, Chamber Music Palisades, Chamber Music Sedona, as well as Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars Series, Yellow Barn, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and Marlboro Music Festival. Memorable collaborations include working with composers John Adams, Sofia Gubaidulina, Jennifer Higdon, Steve Mackey, and Kaija Saariaho, pianists Jonathan Biss and Gil Kalish, violinists Lucy Chapman, Pamela Frank, Joseph Lin, and Don Weilerstein, and violists Atar Arad, Kim Kashkashian, and Nobuko Imai.

The coming year will see long-standing projects come to fruition, most notably her forthcoming Arioso Project, which will culminate in the first commercial recording of a piece written in 1929. “Resurrecting” and accompanying this piece into the present will be five newly commissioned works reflecting on themes of adversity and oppression and the distinct creativity that flows from such circumstances. Additionally, Ms. Rommel is the founder and Artistic Director of the newly established Jigsaw Chamber Ensemble in Seattle, Washington.

Sarah Rommel began her musical studies on the piano at age nine and was introduced to the cello through her public school at age twelve. She was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at eighteen years old, where she pursued a bachelor’s degree with Peter Wiley. Previous teachers include Efe Baltacigil and Hans Jørgen Jensen. She received her master’s degree from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles under the tutelage of renowned pedagogue and mentor Ralph Kirshbaum. She recently completed three years as Artist-in-Residence and cello faculty at the University of Washington and was guest faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for the 2025 Spring Semester.

Based in Seattle, Ms. Rommel is a passionate knitter and reader, and enjoys the mountain views with her partner Jonathan, their dog Rhubarb, and cat Laptop.