Lecturer in Clarinet, Director of the Junior Jazz Band & Beginner Band

Sarah began her musical studies learning piano and playing clarinet in the James Fitzgerald Band in Mitchelstown. She later attended the Cork School of Music, studying clarinet with Bernard Casey and saxophone with Kenneth Edge, and gained an honours degree in music at UCC. She undertook her MA under Janet Hilton at Birmingham Conservatoire and later worked as a clarinet and saxophone teacher for some years with Brighton and Hove Music Service.

Sarah has been teaching in the Cork School of Music since 1999. In addition to her instrumental teaching there she also directs the Beginner Band and the Junior Jazz band, who enjoy regular performances in the Cork School of Music, the Cork Jazz Festival and the GLOW Christmas Markets.  Sarah examines many woodwind candidates at the annual CSM and County Cork School of Music grade exams.

Sarah has over 25 years' experience playing in orchestras, bands and pit orchestras for musicals, opera, ballet and pantomimes in Cork City and county. She is in her sixth year as musical director for the Mitchelstown Musical Society and credits include Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, All Shook Up, Oliver, Oklahoma and Anything Goes. She is the bandleader of the recently formed 'Speakeasy' Dixieland Band and has spent many enjoyable years performing with the Showstoppers Band and Tuxedo Junction Big Band.