Sarah Ying Ma(she/they) is pursuing an A.D. at the University of Cincinnati's CCM where she studies with Kenneth Renshaw and is mentored in chamber music by the Ariel Quartet. Sarah was named a 2024 Performance Today Young Artist in Residence with host Fred Childs, and is the recent 2nd Prizewinner of the 2023 Dallas International Violin Competition: "Her impassioned account was gripping from start to finish. She commanded that rarest of effects, pianissimos at the threshold of audibility that still radiated intensity" (The Dallas Morning News). In 2024, Sarah was accepted as a semifinalist in both the solo and ensemble divisions of the Concert Artists Guild Louis & Susan Meisel Competition, and later advanced to the finals with Poiesis. As a soloist, Sarah has performed internationally with the Dallas Chamber Symphony, Ensemble 212, the Accademia D’Archi Arrigoni, and many more. Sarah was featured in Show 393 on NPR’s “From the Top'' and was a winner of the 2021 National YoungArts Competition. She has attended Heifetz International Music Institute and Kneisel Hall, and was the Dorothy Richard Starling fellow at Aspen Music Festival as a student of Robert Lipsett, Donald Weilerstein, and Paul Kantor. Sarah was a laureate of the 2019 Cooper International Competition sponsored by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins and the Anthony Quinn Foundation. After transferring from undergraduate studies at The Juilliard School with Donald Weilerstein and Li Lin & Masao Kawasaki in the Pre-College Division, Sarah now holds a B.M. in Violin Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with Sibbi Bernhardsson.
