Sarah Hicks

Who is Sarah Hicks?

Sarah Hicks is an American orchestral conductor. She is Principal Conductor of Pops and Presentations for the Minnesota Orchestra, and Staff Conductor of the Curtis Institute of Music.

Hicks was trained as a violist and pianist, and received a BA magna cum laude in composition from Harvard University and an Artist’s Degree in conducting from Curtis Institute of Music. She won the Thomas Hoopes Prize for composition and the Doris Cohen Levy Prize for conducting from Harvard University, and the Helen F. Whitaker Fund Scholarship and a Presser Award at Curtis.

She previously served as Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Resident Conductor of the Florida Philharmonic, Assistant Conductor of the Reading Symphony and Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Singers, the chorus of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She was for five seasons Music Director of the Hawaii Summer Symphony, an ensemble she founded in 1991. After graduating from Curtis, she was for one season assistant conductor to the Verbier Festival Orchestra, training with James Levine.

As a guest conductor, Hicks has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Florida Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony, Prime Philharmonic, East Slovak State Opera Theatre, New National Theatre Tokyo, and the Orchestra of Teatro La Fenice.