Sarah Willis

Hornist Sarah Willis has pursued much of her career across Germany as a Berlin Philharmonic member, as well as in Britain and France, while issuing recordings on CPO and additional labels. Born February 23, 1968, in Bethesda, Maryland, she is the sister of U.S. conductor Alastair Willis. Her childhood unfolded across multiple countries, with periods spent in Moscow, London, and Tokyo. Although she began with piano instruction, a single French horn lesson at age 14 prompted an immediate switch to that instrument. While residing in Britain, she participated in a youth orchestra before entering the Junior Department of London's Royal College of Music. She later attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where her teachers included Anthony Halstead and Jeff Bryant. After experiencing a live Berlin Philharmonic performance, she relocated to Berlin for lessons with Fergus McWilliam and secured a position in the Staatsoper orchestra then led by Daniel Barenboim. Her recording debut arrived in 1999 on CPO with Antonio Rosetti's Concerto for two horns and orchestra, performed by the SWR Baden-Baden and Freiburg Symphony Orchestra under Holger Schroter-Seebeck. In 2001 she successfully auditioned for membership in the Berlin Philharmonic. Solo engagements have followed with the Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, among others, alongside her strong commitment to chamber music. She has also promoted classical repertoire extensively through digital platforms, maintaining the Horn Hangouts streaming video channel, conducting interviews for the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall, and serving in 2011 as mentor and presenter for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Additional Rosetti recordings appeared on CPO before she joined the Alpha label in 2020 for Mozart y Mambo with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra. Appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2021, she issued the album Horn Discoveries that same year, and Alpha reissued Mozart y Mambo with supplementary material in 2022.