Sarah Quartel, BMus’05, BEd’06

Recipient of the Don Wright Faculty of Music Alumni Wall of Fame 

Composer Sarah Quartel is one of Canada’s most internationally celebrated and widely performed living choral composers. Her music is programmed globally, and her commissions have premiered in spaces such as Carnegie Hall, Canterbury Cathedral and the Church of the Rock in Helsinki. Known for her fresh, exciting and chorister-centred approach to music-making, Sarah writes in a way that connects singer to singer, ensemble to conductor and performer to audience. 

Sarah has served as composer-in-residence for Vox Anima (London), National Concerts (New York City), Singing Girls of Texas (Fort Worth), and Cathedral of St. John (Albuquerque). She has been commissioned by groups including the Orchestre de Paris, the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, the American Choral Directors Association, the National Children’s Chorus of the USA, Hamilton Children’s Choir and New Dublin Voices. Notable performances and recordings include those by Chanticleer, London Voices, Rajaton, The Swingles, The Gesualdo Six, New York Polyphony, The Nathaniel Dett Chorale and the global mega-choir, the Stay at Home Choir. 

Sarah is published exclusively with Oxford University Press.