Biography

Theresa Sauvage, M.Mus.Ed., violinist, mezzo-soprano, and conductor, grew up on Mercer Island, Washington, and began studying violin at the age of nine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, as well as a master’s degree in Kodály Pedagogy from Holy Names University in Oakland, California, where she was a William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Fellow.

Sauvage runs a busy violin and viola studio on Mercer Island. She also serves on the faculty at Bellevue College where she teaches violin and conducting. Her students consistently hold top positions in their school orchestras, participate in the Washington State All State Festival, participate in the Seattle and Bellevue Youth Symphonies as well as the Seattle, Bellevue, and Tacoma Youth Symphonies summer programs. Students who graduated from her studio have gone on to pursue degrees in music at the University of Colorado Boulder, and others have participated in their university orchestras. In addition to orchestras, her students have soloed with Seattle Opera as well as the Vienna Boys’ Choir.

Prior to Covid, she taught Kodály-based musicianship classes at homeschool co-ops in the Seattle area along with private violin and viola lessons. She founded and directed a string orchestra as well an a cappella young women’s vocal ensemble for homeschoolers.

As a violinist, she studied with and was teaching assistant to Hungarian violinist Klara Fenyő Bahcall at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She has been heard with a wide variety of chamber ensembles ranging from violin duos to vocal quartets, as well as early music.

She studied voice under Dr. Craig Grayson. Her solo vocal engagements include performances of lieder by Luise Greger and Clara Schumann at the Luise Greger International Music Festival on Whidbey Island. In addition to solo work, she participated in the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Chamber Choir under acclaimed composer Eric Barnum. She has also directed the choir at the Russian Catholic Church in San Francisco and has an extensive background in Slavic Orthodox chant.

Sauvage is a clinician for local choir programs and school orchestras. She is committed to continuing her musical education and has taken courses in Alexander Technique at UC-Boulder, AP Music Theory Test prep, Kodály Musicianship and Pedagogy through Holy Names University and Gwendolyn Masin’s The Exhale.

Sauvage is dedicated to giving her students a thorough, holistic, and joyful musical education in a warm and nurturing environment.