Sarah Hicks
Sarah Hicks's versatile and vibrant musicianship has secured her place as an in-demand conductor across an array of genres, and as an educator, arranger, producer, writer and speaker committed to creating connections through music. Her career has seen collaborations with diverse artists, from Hilary Hahn, Olga Kern and Dmitri Hvorostovsky to Smokey Robinson, Rosanne Cash and the Dirty Projectors; she toured with Sting as conductor of his Symphonicities Tour. Her passion for cross-genre partnerships led to an album with rap artist Dessa and the Minnesota Orchestra, with whom she holds a titled position. In 2021 she collaborated with gamer DrLupo for an innovative live-play project for Intel Gaming and in 2023 premiered Rufus Wainwright’s Want Symphonic at the BBC Proms.
A highly sought-after guest conductor, Ms. Hicks has worked extensively both in the States and abroad. Notable ensembles include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Seattle Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, RTÉ Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, WDR Funkhausorchester Köln, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and Tokyo Philharmonic, among many others.
A specialist in film music and the film in concert genre, her live concert recording of “A Celebration of the Music of Coco at the Hollywood Bowl” can be seen on Disney+ and her work on “Little Mermaid Live” was broadcast on ABC; film credits include, “Renfield”, released by Universal Pictures in April of 2023. Her concerts with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra of film music, “The Morricone Duel” was released as an album and worldwide broadcast in 2018 and has garnered over 200 million view on YouTube.
Since 2019 Ms. Hicks has acted as advisor on numerous projects for Disney Music Group and is a consultant and frequent collaborator at Disney Concerts. Since 2020, she has been the primary host and writer of “This is Minnesota Orchestra”, broadcast on Twin Cities PBS and streamed globally; in 2022 she won a regional Emmy for her work as producer, writer and host of “Cloud Cult with the Minnesota Orchestra”.
Sarah Hicks was born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in Honolulu, HI. Trained on both the piano and the viola, she was a prizewinning pianist by her early teens. She received her BA magna cum laude from Harvard University in composition. She holds an Artists' Degree in conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with the late renowned pedagogue Otto-Werner Mueller. In her spare time, Ms. Hicks enjoys running, hiking, her Papillon, cooking (and eating) with her husband, traveling and blogging.