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People often ask me for more detail about my life and career than my official biography gives. Not dates and names but how and why. So this – call it a personal biography – shares a bit more and touches on the most influential and inspiring events in my horn-playing life.

It’s absolutely true that I decided I wanted to be a horn player at my very first horn lesson. Really! My first teacher was a trombone player and I adored him and the horn, so much so that I practiced as much as I could. I’d played the piano from a young age and so was used to doing practice. My parents were quite strict about it, something I’m very grateful for.

Because I was spending all my time in a practice room with my horn, school became quite a lonely place as my fellow classmates didn’t really understand my passion. So I lived for Sunday evenings when I rehearsed with a youth orchestra. I have to say that being a member of various youth orchestras was one of the most important and enjoyable parts of my musical training. Here, I found other young people who did not think it weird to spend lots of time al

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“The horn is for boys”, Sarah Willis' schoolteacher told her, and so he suggested that she learn the flute or the oboe. That remark served as a challenge to the US-born Brit, who grew up in Tokyo, Boston, Moscow and London and she had her first horn lesson at the age of 14. After studying for three years on the Performer's Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Sarah continued her training with Fergus McWilliam in Berlin.

From 1991 to 2001 she was a member of the Staatskapelle Berlin and in 2001 became the first female brass player to win a position with the Berlin Philharmonic. Sarah Willis has performed with many other leading orchestras and has appeared as a soloist and a chamber musician all over the world. She has recorded various acclaimed albums, her most recent of which, `Mozart y Mambo´, is a fusion of classical and Cuban rhythms.

Sarah is passionate about music education and makes full use of
digital technology and social media to reach audiences worldwide.
She teaches at the Berlin Philharmonic Karajan Academy and
esp

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Sarah Willis, First Lady of the French Horn

But in addition to her Berliner duties, this year Willis has stepped out from under the orchestra’s giant shadow for the first time.

She has recorded a CD of chamber music. Trio! is available on Musik Alexander, the bespoke label of Gebr. Alexander of Mainz who have been supplying horns to the Berlin Phil since time immemorial. It features three pieces for horn, violin and piano: Brahms’s incomparable trio; a transcription of Mozart’s quintet for horn, violin, two violas and cello – known as “das Leitgebische” in honour of Josef Leutgeb, the horn player for whom Mozart would later write the four concertos; and a playful bauble by Duvernoy. The CD also features Cordelia Höfer on piano and Kotowa Machida on violin. Read Graham Rickson’s rave review on theartsdesk here.

For those of us who follow the horn world, Willis’s emergence as a soloist is a surprising development. She has played in the Berlin Phil's wind ensembles before, and its horn ensembles - most notably on Opera!, a CD of operatic pieces recorded by the Berlin Philharmo