Dr. Sarah K. Crocker is a professional harpist and musicologist lecturing and performing solo, chamber, and orchestral music throughout the United States and beyond. Dr. Crocker is Adjunct Professor of Harp at Middle Tennessee State University, where she has taught courses in harp, music history, music theory, and music appreciation and has served on the faculty of the MTSU Honors College. Dr. Crocker is also the Adjunct Professor of Harp at Lipscomb University and harp faculty of the TN Governor's School for the Arts. In addition to her university teaching positions, Dr. Crocker is the founder and owner of Hillnote Music and Director of the Hillnote Harp & Piano Academy in Franklin, TN. Sarah serves on the Board of Directors of the American Harp Society, Inc. as the Regional Director Coordinator and Southern Regional Director and is an Editorial Board Member of the American Harp Journal. Crocker has previously served on the Executive Committee of the American Harp Society, Inc. and as President of the Nashville Chapter of the American Harp Society (2014-2019). Prior to her position at MTSU, Crocker served on the faculty of the Kentucky Institute of International Studies (KIIS) and was an Instructor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology courses and the Instructor of Secondary Harp at the University of Alabama. 

Dr. Crocker made her debut as a concerto soloist with the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, where she has been principal harp since 2006. Crocker also currently serves as principal harp of the Tennessee Philharmonic Orchestra and was the principal harp of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra from 2005-2013. Sarah regularly performs as substitute principal harp with many ensembles across the Southeast: Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Kentucky, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, Shoals Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Wind Ensemble, Albany Symphony Orchestra, and the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. Having a passion for chamber music, Sarah is a founding member of the Druid City Ensemble (soprano, flute, and harp) and Sticks & Strings (drum set and harp) chamber groups, who have performed and led master classes at universities and festivals across the United States, including the 2019 American Harp Socierty, Inc. Summer Institute (Winston-Salem, NC), 2016 National Flute Festival (San Diego), and the Second Saturday Concert Series (Chicago, IL). 

Dr. Crocker's primary research interests include French harpist-composers Alphonse Hasselmans and Henriette Renié, music's intersection with French culture, politics, and gender identities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the post-WWI and -WII avant-garde movements in Europe and America. Crocker has presented lectures at conferences across the Southeast, including "The Legacy of Harpist and Composer Henriette Renié (1875-1956)" (Music by Women Festival, Columbus, MS, 2017), "Tracing the Legacy of the French Harp School: Hasselmans and His Successors" (American Harp Society National Conference, Atlanta, 2016), "Pierre Jamet and the Twentieth-Century Harp Quinet" (American Harp Society National Conference, New Orleans, 2014), and "The Hasselmans Family: A Musical Legacy" (University of Alabama, 2012). Her dissertation, "The Descriptive Miniatures of Alphonse Hasselmans and Henriette Renié: An Examination of the Pedagogical and Artistic Significance of Salon Pieces for Harp," was nominated for the 2013 Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award.

Dr. Crocker holds a B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. in Harp Performance with Musicology cognate from the University of Alabama. She has studied harp with Judith Sullivan-Hicks, Judy Loman, Mary Brigid Roman, Carol McClure, and Katie Buckley at the Brevard Music Festival. Sarah has performed in masterclasses for famed jazz harpist Deborah Henson-Conant and Maxim Rubstov, principal flute of the Russian National Orchestra.

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