Sarah Cummings began studying the violin at the age of 4 in Durham NH with Louise Wear, who was among the first generation of teachers to implement the Suzuki method in the United States. Sarah discovered her passion for teaching as a teenager when she had the unexpected opportunity to take on some private students. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from Ithaca College and a Master’s degree in musicology from Northwestern University. Her other major teachers include Marylou Speaker Churchill, Linda Case, and Blair Milton, and she did her Suzuki Teacher Training with Carrie Reuning Hummel, Sandy Reuning and Thomas Wermuth. Sarah is a violin faculty member and Assistant Director at Ithaca Talent Education and is the Co-Director of the Ithaca Suzuki Institute.
Sarah has been a devoted member of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra for nearly 20 years; she served as the librarian for 15 years and is on the Board of Directors, is the coordinator for the orchestra’s Youth Outreach program, and is the co-founder of the CCO Youth Orchestra. Also active in the upstate New York area as a freelance musician, she has performed regularly with local organizations such as Music’s Recreation and Women’s Works and is featured on the album Fiddlespel: Dance Music of Scandinavia. “I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people alive to get to teach music to children for a living! I never, ever get tired of Twinkle because each child brings something unique, every day.”