Sarah McElravy

Praised for her “divine sound, exquisitely sculpted” (The Prague Post) and celebrated for her “emotional depth and expressive intimacy” (Kleine Zeitung), Canadian violist and violinist Sarah McElravy has firmly established herself as one of the most compelling soloists and chamber musicians of her generation. Acclaimed for forging genuine connections with audiences and colleagues alike, she places chamber music at the heart of her artistry, shaping the depth she brings to the world’s leading stages.

In the 2025–26 season, McElravy makes debuts with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano under Cornelius Meister, the Zagreb Soloists, the Macau Orchestra, and the Chamber Philharmonia Zhejiang in Hangzhou, where she performs a special arrangement of Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata under conductor Junping Qian. She also returns to the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra for a tour of Poland and Lithuania, and to the Sofia Philharmonic under Nayden Todorov for Giya Kancheli’stranscendent concerto Styx.

Over the past decade, she has appeared as soloist with distinguished orchestras across Europe, Asia, and North America — including the Helsinki Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Hannover State Symphony, Grazer Philharmoniker, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, and the Bayerischer Rundfunk Chamber Orchestra among many others. These collaborations have brought her to major international stages, where she performs both cornerstone works and new commissions. Recent highlights include the world premiere of Transcendent Love, a viola concerto written for her by Benjamin Yusupov, hailed as a powerful and distinctive addition to the viola repertoire.

This season also sees the launch of two recording projects, featuring a new work by Israeli composer Uri Brener as well as a viola concerto by Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and Sergey Smbatyan.

Equally at home in chamber music, McElravy makes festival debuts at Stavanger (Norway) and Brugg (Switzerland), performing Mozart’s Divertimento for String Trio with Emmanuel Tjeknavorian and Jeremias Fliedl. She returns to the Herbstgold Festival and the Sonoro Festival, and continues an international tour of Bach's Goldberg Variations for String Trio alongside violinist Julian Rachlin and cellist Boris Andrianov, with performances at Wigmore Hall (London), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Teatro della Pergola (Florence), and Milan’s Conservatorio Verdi.

As a violinist, she was a founding member of the Linden String Quartet (2009–2015), touring widely across North America, holding residencies at Yale University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and winning top prizes at the Concert Artists Guild, Fischoff, and Coleman competitions. In 2014 she founded Chamber Music Society México, bringing world-class performances and mentorship to young musicians in Mexico City and Cuernavaca.

A true global citizen, McElravy has lived in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Austria while traveling nearly 300 days a year on five continents. Her dual identity as violinist and violist mirrors her artistic philosophy: rooted in tradition yet open to discovery, equally at home in Bach and in world premieres. Driven by an insatiable curiosity, she embraces her life as an explorer — of sound, of culture, and of human connection — drawing inspiration from the audiences, traditions, and encounters that continually shape her path.

She performs on a 1791 Ferdinando Gagliano violin and a 1785 Lorenzo Storioni viola, both generously on loan from the Dkfm. Angelika Prokopp Privatstiftung in Vienna.