Elite Educational Coaching

Sara Su Jones is an award-winning violinist who has performed extensively as a soloist throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.  Named one of Chicago's "Best Local Female Musicians" by CBS Chicago, she is an active recitalist and chamber musician, appearing regularly throughout the Chicago area in venues such as Preston Bradley Hall (Chicago Cultural Center), WFMT's Levin Performance Studio, Fourth Presbyterian Church (Artists in Recital Series), Ganz Hall (Roosevelt University), Harold Washington Library Center (Music in the Library Concert Series), PianoForte, St. James Cathedral, the Cliff Dwellers Club, and St. James (Quigley) Chapel (Second Saturday Concert Series); her solo recitals have been recommended by the Chicago Tribune's classical-music critic, John von Rhein.  In recent seasons, Sara Su has also given recitals in Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, California, Wisconsin, and Indiana, including performances at Harvard and Pepperdine Universities.  In 2013, she gave a recital on the main stage at Harpa, the home of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in Reykjavik, for an audience of more than 500.  In 2015, she returned to Reykjavik to give a private concert at the Residence of the U.S. Ambassador for an audience of ambassadors and cultural leaders, in addition to performing at the U.S. Embassy and at the historic Culture House.  In December 2016, Sara Su gave another private concert at the Residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Iceland for a distinguished audience that included former President of Iceland Vigdis Finnbogadottir.  Sara Su's 2017 engagements include performances for the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Flossmoor Chapter and for the Musicians Club of Women at the Union League Club, as well as a return to WFMT's Levin Performance Studio and the Cliff Dwellers Club.

At age 17, Sara Su received an A.R.C.M. certificate in violin performance from the Royal College of Music in London, England.  That year, she was named the “Most Promising Young Musician of the Year” at the Bristol Proms Festival in Bristol, England, and her winning performance was broadcast on BBC Radio.   
 
As an undergraduate at Harvard, she served for three years as assistant concertmaster of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO), Harvard’s symphony orchestra.  Since 2006, Sara Su has been concertmaster of the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra (CBASO), Chicago's orchestra of lawyers.  (Sara Su holds an A.B. in Economics, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D., cum laude, both from Harvard.)  As featured soloist with the CBASO, she performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in March 2007, the Vivaldi Concerto for Two Violins in A minor with former Lyric Opera concertmaster Henry Criz in October 2007, the Bruch Violin Concerto in G minor in November 2009, and the Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor in March 2013 at St. James Cathedral.  (See the review of her Bruch Concerto performance above.)  
 
A top prizewinner in various music competitions in both the U.S. and England, including that of the Harvard Musical Association, Sara Su has performed in Symphony Hall (Boston) and Orchestra Hall (Chicago) and as a soloist in major international concert halls, such as Harpa (Reykjavik, Iceland—home of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra), Grieg Hall (Bergen, Norway—home of the Bergen Philharmonic), Vienna International Centre (Vienna, Austria), and venues in England, Germany, Japan, and Canada, among others.  Sara Su was a Violin Fellow at the Waterloo Festival School of Music in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1993, where she played in the Waterloo Festival Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz and performed in the Young Artist Chamber Music Series. Earlier, as a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, she performed on numerous occasions as concertmaster and soloist with the Phillips Academy Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.  Sara Su, who started playing the violin at age 2, has studied with Mark Zinger (a former student and colleague of David Oistrakh) since she was 7.  Her former teachers include Roman Totenberg and Almita Vamos.

Sara Su is also an accomplished singer.  As a soprano in the Cathedral Choir and Chamber Choir of St. James Cathedral in downtown Chicago, she performed live on 98.7 WFMT.  The Cathedral Choir’s CD (“Arise, Shine!”—MSR Classics MS-1376), released on a national label in November 2010, was selected by 98.7 WFMT as one of the top 12 holiday recordings of 2010, and the Cathedral Choir's March 2012 performance of the Brahms Requiem was broadcast by 98.7 WFMT.  The American Record Guide has called the St. James Cathedral Choir "a paragon among American church choirs."

From ages 9 to 12, Sara Su was a member of the Children’s Chorus of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.  She sang in Carmen and Otello (both with Placido Domingo); Die Frau ohne Schatten; La Boheme; and La Gioconda. (View the full-page Chicago Tribune article on Sara Su and her role in Carmen.)  Sara Su also performed as a supernumerary in the Chicago Opera Theater’s production of The Pearl Fishers.  At Phillips Academy, she was selected to join the Cantata Choir, in which she sang for four years, with concert tours throughout Italy and the U.S.  At Westonbirt School in England, Sara Su sang in the Chapel Choir and Senior Choir and passed the Grade 8 (highest grade) Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music examination in singing, in her first year of private voice lessons.  
 
Sara Su also has a strong background in dance, having started ballet lessons at age 3.  When she was 5, she danced in a Danish Royal Ballet production at the Civic Opera House in Chicago.  She continued advanced ballet studies throughout her years at Andover.

 

View a list of Sara Su's upcoming performances.