Sarah Willis
Hornist Sarah Willis has been active mostly in Germany, where she is a member of the Berlin Philharmonic, Britain, and France. She has made recordings for CPO and other labels.
Willis was born on February 23, 1968, in Bethesda, Maryland. Her brother is U.S. conductor Alastair Willis. Sarah's upbringing was truly international, including stints in Moscow, London, and Tokyo. She took piano lessons as a girl, but when she was 14 and had a single lesson on the French horn, she immediately switched to that instrument. Living in Britain, she joined a youth orchestra and then enrolled at the Junior Department of London's Royal College of Music. Willis went on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Anthony Halstead and Jeff Bryant. After hearing the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra live, she moved to Berlin, where she took lessons with Fergus McWilliam and won a place in the orchestra of Berlin's Staatsoper, conducted at the time by Daniel Barenboim. She made her recording debut in 1999 on CPO, performing the Concerto for two horns and orchestra of Antonio Rosetti with the SWR Baden-Baden and Freiburg Symphony Orchestra under conductor Holger Schroter-Seebeck.
In 2001, Willis auditioned for and won a place in the Berlin Philharmonic. She has made solo appearances with the Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, among others, and is also an enthusiastic chamber music player. Willis has been unusually active in promoting classical music online, hosting her own streaming video channel, Horn Hangouts, serving as an interviewer for the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall, and acting in 2011 as a mentor and presenter for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Willis made several more recordings of Rosetti's music for CPO. She then moved to the Alpha label in 2020 for the album Mozart y Mambo, recorded with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra. In 2021, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire and released the album Horn Discoveries. Mozart y Mambo was reissued with new content by Alpha in 2022.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
15 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Mozart y Mambo: La Bella Cubana
Sarah Willis, Havana Lyceum Orchestra, José Antonio Méndez Padrón
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on 8 Sep 2023
Available in24-Bit/96 kHz Stereo -
Sarahbanda
World - Released by Alpha Classics on 6 Sep 2024
Available in24-Bit/192 kHz Stereo -
Mozart y Mambo
Sarah Willis, José Antonio Méndez Padrón, Havana Lyceum Orchestra
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on 10 Jul 2020
Available in24-Bit/96 kHz Stereo -
Mozart y Mambo: Cuban Dances
Sarah Willis, Havana Lyceum Orchestra, José Antonio Méndez Padrón
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on 2 Sep 2022
Available in24-Bit/96 kHz Stereo -
Horn Discoveries
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on 5 Feb 2021
Available in24-Bit/48 kHz Stereo -
Martin Owen Plays Strauss, Schumann & Weber
Martin Owen, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, John Wilson, Chris Parkes, Alec Frank-Gemmill, Sarah Willis
Classical - Released by Chandos on 28 Jul 2023
Available in24-Bit/96 kHz Stereo -
Martin Owen Plays Strauss, Schumann & Weber
Martin Owen, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, John Wilson, Chris Parkes, Alec Frank-Gemmill, Sarah Willis
Classical - Released by Chandos on 28 Jul 2023
Available in24-Bit/96 kHz Stereo -
Rosetti: Clarinet Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 & Concerto for 2 Horns
Dieter Klöcker, Klaus Wallendorf, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Sarah Willis, Holger Schroter-Seebeck
Classical - Released by CPO on 28 Sep 1999
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Trio!
Sarah Willis, Cordelia Hoefer, Kotowa Machida
Symphonic Music - Released by Dooload.de on 1 May 2009
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Rosetti: Horn Concertos
Klaus Wallendorf, Sarah Willis
Classical - Released by CPO on 1 Jan 2009
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Rosetti: Horn Concertos
Klaus Wallendorf, Sarah Willis, Kurpfalzisches Kammerorchester, Johannes Moesus
Classical - Released by CPO on 1 Jan 2009
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Rosetti, A.: Horn Concertos - C48/Iii:37, C50/Iii:44, C55Q/Iii:54, C61/Iii:49
Klaus Wallendorf, Sarah Willis, Kurpfalzisches Kammerorchester, Johannes Moesus
Concertos - Released by CPO on 1 Jan 2009
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Reicha: Bläzerkonzerte
Milan Lajcik, Sarah Willis, Karl-Otto Hartmann, Dieter Klöcker, Prague Chamber Orchestra
Classical - Released by Orfeo on 1 Jan 2016
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Rosetti: Concertos for 2 Horns
Klaus Wallendorf, Sarah Willis, Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, Johannes Moesus
Classical - Released by CPO on 23 Sep 2003
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Rosetti: Concertos for 2 Horns
Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, Klaus Wallendorf, Sarah Willis, Johannes Moesus
Classical - Released by CPO on 23 Sep 2003
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo