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Sara Beattie

Sara Beattie fell in love with the cello when she had a song in her beginning piano book called 'The Cello.' She thought, “If they can make a song so beautiful, the cello must be 100 times as wonderful!” She was right. She got started in the public school system, eventually studying with Frederic Wise in NYC as she attended the High School of Music & Art, where she was awarded the Chamber Music medal.


Beattie earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a music concentration from Brown University receiving the Marion P. Hassenfeld Premium in music, as well as the Rostropovich Prize. She then studied in Chicago for two years with the late Karl Fruh, prodigy of the legendary cellist Emanuel Feuermann. In 2010 she received a Master of Music in Cello Performance from WVU, where she began work on a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Cello Performance as a student of William Skidmore.

She studied violin/viola technique and pedagogy with Andrea Houde and has passed level 3.5 on viola at WVU.

Beattie is a free-lance cellist and has performed with many orchestras and chamber groups in the greater Morgantown area, including the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. She is a founding member of the Allegheny Chamber Players, and is passing on her love of chamber music through the establishment of a local Chamber Music Camp

She is currently Professor of Strings and Director of the Chamber String Orchestra at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania, while continuing to teach Aural Theory classes at the WVU School of Music. As a member of WVMTA, and ASTA, Beattie encourages students to participate in the performing opportunities available through these organizations, as well as the Royal Conservatory of Music examinations. She has a thriving private studio and believes that music is intrinsic to all human beings, and that everyone is capable of learning to play an instrument well, at any age.