Sarah Gentry

Biography

Dr. Gentry has served as a member of the faculty in the School of Music since 1992. A Louisiana native, Gentry began playing the violin as a Suzuki student at age 6. After graduating magna cum laude from Louisiana State University, she earned a Master of Music degree from Yale University and the Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University in 1995. She studied violin under Franco Gulli, Sally O’Reilly, Sidney Harth, and Henryk Kowalski, and chamber music with the Tokyo String Quartet. Gentry currently performs as Concertmaster of the Heartland Festival Orchestra, voted “Professional Orchestra of the Year 2011” by the Illinois Council of Orchestras. She has also held concertmaster positions with Opera Illinois, Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana, Sugar Creek Music Festival, and served as Associate Concertmaster for the Peoria Symphony Orchestra from 1992-2000. Gentry has performed as a soloist with the Kansas City Civic Symphony, the Heartland Festival Orchestra, the Lake Charles Symphony, the Baroque Artists of Champaign- Urbana, and the Millenneum Strings of Morris, New York. As a chamber musician she performs as first violinist of the ISU Faculty Quartet. Dr. Gentry is active throughout the state and region as a clinician in schools and as an adjudicator for events such as Illinois Music Educators Association auditions. During the summer, Dr. Gentry has taught at the Music for All Symposium and the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.