Affiliated scholar biography - Sarah Kraaz
Sarah Mahler Kraaz is Professor of Music and Organist of the College at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where she has taught since 1989. She holds an undergraduate degree in music education from Olivet College and graduate degrees in music history and organ performance from the University of Colorado and the University of Kansas, respectively. She studied organ with Danford Byrens, Everett Hilty, and James Moeser. Dr. Kraaz has also taken classes from Marie-Claire Alain, Catherine Crozier, and Michael Radulescu.
In July 2002 Dr. Kraaz appeared as a guest recitalist at the XVI Festival Internazionale Storici Organi della Valsesia in Campertogno (Piedmont), Italy, the only North American to do so. Since then, she has played recitals in California, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A grant from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest enabled her to play a recital at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, in October 2006. In January 2008, she was selected as one of six recording artists by the National UCC Worship & Education Ministry to record the entire New Century Hymnal on a CD set as a resource for parish churches. She was a featured artist (organ) with the Pine Mountain Music Festival in June 2008, playing three recitals in different venues in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
A special scholarly/artistic grant from Ripon College in 2002 enabled Dr. Kraaz to examine and play a number of historic organs in Germany, including the 1687 Schnitger organ at the church of St. Peter and Paul in Cappel. In July 2004 she traveled to Scotland to examine and play historic keyboard instruments in the Russell Collection. She also played various church organs in Scotland and wrote an article describing these instruments for The Diapason, an international journal of organ and church music.
Recent projects include composing for organ and choir. Her settings of Scottish folksongs and sea chanteys have been published by Alliance Publications, Inc. of Fish Creek, Wisconsin. Her most recent anthem, “The Bitter Winter,” with text by Ralph Freeman of Neenah, Wisconsin, was premiered by the Ripon College Choral Union in April 2008.
Dr. Kraaz teaches piano, organ, and harpsichord, music history classes, counterpoint, Women in Music, and American Music, and directs the Collegium Musicum at Ripon College. She performs annual solo recitals in addition to collaborative programs with singers on piano and harpsichord. She has edited the piano music of Veronika Cianchettini (neé Dussek) for ClarNan Editions and is a regular contributor of reviews and feature articles to The Diapason. Dr. Kraaz also holds the position of Minister of Music at the First Congregational Church, UCC in Ripon, where she directs the senior choir and plays for services.
In her spare time, Dr. Kraaz enjoys spending time with her family and reading, cooking, traveling, and swimming.