Conductor, 27, loses her battle with cancer
mainTime was stopped today by news of the death of Sarah Knapp Kidd, a dazzling Juilliard graduate whom fellow-students believed was on her way to great things. Originally from Bloomington, Indiana, she lived and died in Brooklyn. NY.
Sarah appears in this video on the rise of women conductors. Our sympathies to her family and her many friends.
The conductor Tito Munoz remembers Sarah:
I wasn’t close to her, just pleasant chit chatting here and there, but I observed her conducting several times… at Maestro Masur’s workshop where she held her poise and saw the best in his critique, however controversial he might have been, and in a performance with the Juilliard lab orchestra in a very gripping performance of Britten’s Peter Grimes Sea Interludes. She was very talented and very dedicated. Good things were waiting for her. It’s terrible she was cut short, and so abruptly. I hope she serves as an inspiration to other young women who may be thinking about a future in conducting.
This is heartbreaking news. Sarah was a contestant at the Memphis Symphony’s International Conducting Competition a few years ago and impressed everyone with her natural musicality and drive. I was also one of the screeners who saw her application dvd and saw tons of potential, not to mention that she was very down to earth and friendly back stage. This is a talent gone far too soon.