Sarah Watkins

Sarah Watkins has enjoyed an impressive and busy career as a collaborative pianist. She performed across Australia, Asia, the USA and Europe as a founding member of NZTrio from 2002-2018, and now enjoys a wide variety of collaborations with musicians throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.

In addition to NZTrio, she has been an official pianist for the Michael Hill International Violin Competition since its inception in 2001 and the Gisborne International Music Competition from 2008-2021, and has performed as a freelance player in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Auckland Chamber Orchestra. Sarah has also appeared as concerto soloist with St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, ACO, and the APO, and in 2014 recorded Chris Watson's "sing songs self" for solo piano and orchestra with the NZSO, a composition which was awarded the prestigious 2015 SOUNZ Contemporary Award.

An award-winning recording artist, she was named Classical Artist of the Year with violist Robert Ashworth at the 2022 Aotearoa Music Awards for their CD ‘Moonstone’, and in 2020 with violinist Andrew Beer for their CD ‘11 Frames’; ‘Sway’ (NZTrio, 2017) and ‘Gung-ho’ (2009, with NZSO principal trombonist David Bremner) were both previous winners of the Vodafone NZ Music Award for best Classical album.

Sarah is a graduate of the University of Canterbury (NZ) and the Juilliard School in New York City, where she earned both Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in collaborative piano. While living in the US, Sarah worked as a staff pianist at Juilliard, Yale University, and the Aspen Music Festival. She also served as coordinator of the collaborative piano program at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, and spent several years on the music faculty of Purchase College, New York. During the period 2004-2009 NZTrio was ensemble-in-residence at the University of Auckland, where Sarah taught collaborative piano and chamber music; she returned there in 2019 as an artist teacher and chamber music coach, and in 2023 was appointed Senior Lecturer in piano.