Sarah Kirkland Snider

Sarah Kirkland Snider (born October 8, 1973) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral, song cycle, choral, ballet and opera works. Biography Snider was born on October 8, 1973 in Princeton, New Jersey. Despite a non-musical parentage, she had a self-professed musical itch from a young age, going as far as to knock on her neighbors’ doors to play their pianos by ear. Eventually, Snider began formal music study, beginning piano at age 7 and cello at age 10. She also sang in choirs, attending five years of summer camp at the American Boychoir School where she studied under Anton Armstrong. She later attended Princeton High School, singing in a nationally celebrated high school choir under William Trego, and performing in the PHS Orchestra. She cites two female PHS Orchestra conductors as early female role models. Snider received a BA in Psychology-Sociology from Wesleyan University, where she decided not to pursue composition because she felt her music too conservative for its experimentally-oriented program. After graduating in 1995, she moved to New York and worked at a pro-choice law firm. While consideri