Merrill Hall, MU116
Sara Fruehe is visiting assistant professor of music in bassoon at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Whether performing or teaching, Fruehe brings passion and determination to all her projects and students. A dedicated and active chamber musician, she has collaborated in a variety of chamber ensembles but calls the woodwind quintet “home.”
Fruehe is bassoonist and founding member of Volante Winds, a quintet featured at premier festivals including the Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Chamber Music Wilmington, American Music Festival, Mineral Point Chamber Music Festival, and many more. The quintet was named a semi-finalist at the 2017 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, 2021 NOLA Chamber Fest, and, most recently, for three American Prize awards, including the 2022 American Music (Bacon Award), 2022 Chamber Music, and 2021-22 Virtual Performance categories.
Fruehe has held the position of second bassoon with the Terre Haute Symphony in Indiana since 2017 and frequently performs with other orchestras and ensembles throughout Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Michigan.
Using the bassoon, chamber ensembles, and music to help students find and be successful on their own unique paths, Fruehe has worked with students of all ages and levels. In 2016, she was visiting instructor of bassoon and chamber music at James Madison University.
A regularly sought-after clinician and presenter, Fruehe’s recent teaching and presentation engagements include multiple Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Indiana State University presentations, several IU Bassoon Days, the 2021 Colorado State University BassoonaRAMa, and the 2021 California Central Coast Orchestra Academy. In 2022, she will be bassoon faculty at the seventy-fifth anniversary season of the IU Summer Music Clinic.
A Chicagoland native, Fruehe earned a Doctor of Music degree from the IU Jacobs School of Music, with minors in music history and literature, and arts administration. Her dissertation, “The Operatic Bassoon: A Pedagogical Excerpt Collection,” serves as the beginning of a new excerpt collection focused on a comprehensive review of opera excerpts for the bassoon that strives to provide a meeting point for conversation of bassoon study and performance infused with preliminary musicology and music theory concepts for the bassoonist-scholar.
She earned a Master of Music degree from DePaul University and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Jacobs School. Fruehe’s primary teachers include William Ludwig, William Buchman, Robert Barris, and Arthur Weisberg.