Faculty Profile

Education: At SPU since 2020.

Composer, flutist, and educator Sarah Bassingthwaighte is an acclaimed member of the contemporary classical music scene, a music lecturer and clinician, and an award-winning composer who has taught, performed, and had her pieces performed in England, Iceland, Russia, Canada, Mexico, and the US. Her compositions have twice been awarded the national award, the NFA Newly Published Music Award, in 2013 and 2018. 

This coming March, she will be Composer-in-Residence in Sweden, at the Visby International Centre for Composers (VICC). The British journal Pan Magazine acclaims her “hypnotic and rich sound” and goes on to say “The tone quality is full of depth and power.  Bassingthwaighte seems to have a particular talent for communicating the message of contemporary pieces,” which are “performed with polish and virtuosity.”  Her compositions have been performed by the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Northwest, the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, the Sound Ensemble, the Ecco Chamber Ensemble, members of the Iceland Symphony.  

Current commissions include composing the first concerto written for qanun, by an American composer, which will be played by the great Maya Youssef. Also, she is composing for Mexican guitarist Alejandra Reyes, and a flute quartet for Merrie Siegel.  Currently, her concerto for flute and orchestra, House of Doors, which was premiered by the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, is required repertoire for the 2020 National Flute Association convention. Her solo CDs include Songs from the Caucasus,  Stalks in the Breeze, Flute Meets Machine, and she and Mark Wilson recorded Around the World and Through Sirocco.

She is the author of the full-length book Flute Meets Machine, and has been awarded the Stan Chu Essay award.