Sarah S. Hersh
Associate Professor: String Music Education, Violin
Dr. Hersh mentors string players and teachers. Her work has three components: applied violin and chamber music; string music education; and development of string communities through a local pre-college program, regional concerts, and national presentations.
Dr. Hersh draws upon multiple approaches to playing and teaching the violin, including the Galamian and DeLay traditions, Rolland's work, her three years of study with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, and her research in music education and related fields. She is the principal second violinist of The Orchestra of Northern New York. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, Dr. Suzuki's Research Institute in Japan, and the University of Minnesota, she is a designated Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Her doctoral dissertation is Music Educator Shinichi Suzuki: His Teacher Development Program and Studio Teaching.
As Director of Crane's National String Project, she helps university and community students share music through the violin, cello, bass, and harp. This project, now in its tenth year, is part of a consortium of more than 30 university-based projects across the country.
Dr. Hersh has presented over 20 sessions at national conferences of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA), and the National Association of Music Educators (MENC). In 2005 she was awarded both a Certificate of Recognition from ASTA and the Teacher of the Year Award from Crane Student Chapter of MENC.
While on sabbatical leave, Dr. Hersh wrote the manuscript for a book on violin teaching and created a teaching edition of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for her studio use. She presented sessions at the University of Texas-Austin and the ASTA National Conference in Atlanta. Her keynote address to an earlier SAA Leadership Conference was re-broadcast as part of a virtual conference for all SAA members. She participated in the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies at The Juilliard School, where she learned from Itzhak Perlman, David Kim, Monica Huggett, Paul Kantor, and other luminaries of the violin world.
2009-10 events include the Mark O'Connor New York String Camp; the International Conference of Suzuki teacher trainers; a research project with faculty from three universities on the processes of studying violin at the university level; and on-going research to provide windows into string practices, using computers to connect members of string education communities.