Woodwinds

Sara Fraker

Oboe

Sara Fraker is the professor of oboe at the University of Arizona School of Music and oboe faculty artist at the Bay View Music Festival in northern Michigan. Raised in New Haven, Connecticut, she is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (DMA), New England Conservatory (MM), and Swarthmore College (BA). Sara held the Gillet Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center and performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, Chautauqua, Spoleto Festival USA, and the Schleswig-Holstein Orchester Akademie in Germany.

Sara’s innovative chamber music collaborations often explore intersections of music and ecology. She has partnered with the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Arizona Institute for Resilience, and ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer. With pianist Casey Robards (Suh Jung Ahn), Sara released the album Botanica on MSR Classics. She has recorded for Naxos, New World Records, Soundset, Summit, Toccata Classics, Analekta, and Reference Recordings. She has presented recitals at six recent conferences of the International Double Reed Society, including Tokyo, Boulder and New York City. Sara performed the Mozart Oboe Concerto with the Sierra Vista Symphony and Jennifer Higdon’s Oboe Concerto with the University of Arizona Wind Ensemble. In October 2024, she played the American premiere of Judith Weir’s Oboe Concerto with UA’s Arizona Symphony Orchestra. Thrilled to recently join Buffet Crampon’s roster of artists, Sara plays a Buffet Légende oboe.