B i o g r a p h y
Sarah Jordan is a composer, flute performer, and music educator. Her focus within artistic pursuits is on the human experience conveyed through music. She is influenced by her own personal life, nature made sounds, religion and spirituality, and giving musical voice through her perspective of past and present concepts through historical, theoretical, and folkloric research.
Her works have been performed internationally by musical artists and ensembles including, the Delgani String Quartet, Duo Ostinato, Estelì Gomez, Arwen Myers, The Principal Brass, Sound of Late, 4x5 Duo, and the Quasar Saxophone Quartet. Her most recent activities include: her piece November (2018) written for soprano and string trio premiered by grammy-award winning artist Estelì Gomez during her University of Oregon residency in November, 2018; her percussion trio Desperation with a Smile (2018) premiered and by the University of Oregon Percussion Studio in February 2019; her piece *rktho- (2018-2019) for Chamber Orchestra was premiered by the Composers of Oregon Chamber Ensemble (COCO) during their 2019 Spring Concert at the University of Oregon; her piece Sisters in the Garden (2019) for Flute/Bass Flute, A Clarinet, and Viola was commissioned by the TaiHei New Music Ensemble for their award winning project “A Day in a Chinese Garden” and was premiered at the University of Oregon and the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon, USA; her alto saxophone and piano piece Paroxysm (2019) premiered by Duo Ostinato was commissioned by the Thailand International Composition Festival in August, 2019 at Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand; her piece Suite of Miniatures for Flute Choir (2019) for Flute Choir was premiered by the University of Oregon Flute Studio in their Fall 2019 concert; she then gave her Master of Music in Composition Recital at the University of Oregon, Beall Concert Hall which featured many of her recent works, including the premiere of her published chamber orchestra piece, Fragmented Messages (2019); her third string quartet, Anticipation (2020), premiered by the Delgani String Quartet in February 2020 at the University of Oregon; A Lone Woodsman (2018) for Bb Clarinet solo was performed during the International Women’s Day Recital at the University of the Pacific in March 2020; her piece Thoughts (2020) for Soprano was premiered during a YouTube live concert event by Arwen Myers in May, 2020; then in June 2020 her work Isolated Reveries (2020) for flute, string trio, and electronics, Late Night Contemplation (2020), and Memories (2016) both for solo flute during the 2020 Fresh Inc Festival: Digital Edition. Her most recent festival premiere was commissioned by the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium 2021-2022 season for her piano duo When Love is Forgotten (2021) premiered by the 4x5 Duo online in February 2022.
Sarah is also a featured performer and composer for the University of Oregon: New Music Today Festival from 2019-2022 and recently hosted her Doctoral Composition Recital at the University of Oregon: Tykeson Rehearsal Hall on May 19, 2022.
Highlights in Sarah's artistic teaching and presentation experience includes, giving a virtual composition and performance workshop on her piece Isolated Reveries at Oklahoma State University; coordinating and executing a Composition Residency project at the University of Oregon; and teaching as a Graduate Employee for the University of Oregon.
Outside of the performance arts, Sarah created a recorded presentation on her academic research pertaining to British Women Composers during WWI at the University of the Pacific for permanent integration into their MUS:012 course and their High School Summer Camp curriculum. She also presented her research, “Austin Wintory’s Use of Tuvan and Mongolian Music Within ‘The Pathless’” at the 2021 Society of Ethnomusicology Northwest.
In 2016 Sarah received a dual Bachelor of Music in Composition and Flute Performance from the University of the Pacific, Conservatory of Music where she studied composition with Dr. Robert Coburn, Dr. Francois Rose, and Dr. Eric Wood and flute performance with Prof. Mathew Krejci. She then received her Master of Music in Composition in 2020 from the University of Oregon and is currently continuing her education there to obtain a PhD in Music Composition advised by Dr. David Crumb with a concurrent Master of Arts in Music Theory advised by Dr. Jack Boss.