Sarah Cunningham

Sarah Cunningham began her viola da gamba studies in Boston, where viol player Gian Lyman Silbiger, as well as legendary teacher and director Marleen Montgomery, were formative influences, as were further studies with Wieland Kuijken in the Netherlands. After her move to London in 1981, she co-founded the ensemble Sonnerie with Monica Huggett and recorded and toured around the world with ensembles including Fretwork, Phantasm, Sequentia, Les Arts Florissant, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She has performed as a soloist under Simon Rattle, John Elliott Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock, and Gustav Leonhart, and has recorded on ASV, Virgin/EMI, Harmonia Mundi, Erato, and Decca. A former faculty member at Hochschule fuer Kuenst in Germany, the Guildhall School in London, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Cunningham has presented workshops and master classes throughout the world. She was founder and first artistic director of the East Cork Early Music in Ireland and is a founding member of Les Filles de Sainte Colombe. Cunningham has been on the faculty at Juilliard since 2011.