About
Sarah

Sarah MeeRan Cave is a professional, international artist and educator who began violin studies at the age of three in Litchfield, Connecticut, USA with Susan Brown. Since, the journey has never ceased. She continued studies at the Manhattan School of Music, receiving a full scholarship to their preparatory division. Western Classical violin teachers include Charles Pikler, Rony Rogoff, Anca Nicolau, Janet Sung and Marco Forniaciari. During undergraduate studies, she was the youngest member in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, playing under the batons of maestros Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Sir Mark Elder, and Riccardo Muti. In addition to starting her own teaching studio, Sarah also worked for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducting music clinics on their behalf. She has taught music both in the US and abroad, including a variety of magnet high schools, Chicago city colleges, two El Sistema programs, and the Bangalore School of Music where she conducted their chamber orchestra in addition to teaching violin. 

Fine Arts has also always been present in Sarah’s life. She began studying drawing at age six and attended Westover School for its strong Arts emphasis. Later, Sarah studied sculpture with Rhoda Sherbell at the Art Students League of New York and won an award for her piece, Serenity. After, Sarah tried her hand at violin lutherie at the Violin Making School of America. Though the pull back towards performing, composing and teaching music was inevitable, Sarah continues to perform on one of the violins she built, using it exclusively for Eastern influenced genres requiring lower tuning. 

2015 marks a major turning point in Sarah’s life. At the Banff Centre’s eastern music residency, Sarah met Pandit Dhruba Ghosh, a master sarangi player of the Hindustani Classical (North Indian) tradition. In utter clarity and assurance, Sarah moved to Bombay (Mumbai), India to study music with him until his passing in 2017. Dhruba was a key teacher in showing Sarah the depth and breadth of music, its undeniable presence in life and in each other, and its power to connect and transform all who listen. 

Dhruba’s teachings along with significant influences from Rony Rogoff, Tom Zelle, and Rhoda Sherbell, have shaped Sarah to develop her life’s work and vision. Music was the means through which Sarah came to know herself and contributes to her resilience and inner confidence. In an attempt to empower others, she shares her story through the building and touring of her ongoing show, Home en root, which combines original composed world music, narrative, poetry, and movement. Other compositional interests include solo violin, fusion of eastern and western genres, a cappella, and interdisciplinary works with dancers of both modern and Indian Classical traditions. 

Sarah is also very interested in the intersection of healing and music. She offers sound-healing consultations through her method, SoundBar, which uses the intuitive power of music to promote wellness for the client’s highest good. Additionally, Sarah works with renowned dancer, choreographer and Feldenkrais practitioner, Michel Casanovas, in co-teaching workshops in Movement and Resonance. Together, they use movement and sound to invite participants to explore the inner and outer balance in the body, thereby promoting peace and harnessing creative impulses. 

Sarah’s newest and most exciting project centers on nonprofit music education. In an innovative pilot program, Harmonize, Sarah will fuse her learned teachings and own methodologies to implement a music program at VOICE, an all girls’ orphanage outside of Bombay. She will teach violin and voice, using music as a means to cultivate self-reference and resilience, thereby strengthening the girls’ higher needs. By building resilience and self-reference, self-confidence and one’s ability to connect will be deepened. Ideally, an increased awareness in social emotional wellbeing will help prevent or mobilize the girls from poverty. Sarah strongly believes in the power of intentional Arts education, and gravitates towards developing sustainable social change for marginalized communities. Music is not an object or an outside subject to be learned. It is not an “extra”-curricular. Music education is an essential tool for empowering future generations to live from the heart, promoting peace, understanding, tolerance and creative minds. 

For artistic collaboration, holistic sessions, and educational inquiries, please see her contact information.