Bio
Sara Carina Graef’s music has been performed around the United States as well as in Canada, Europe, and Mexico. She has held composer residencies at the Ucross Foundation, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Ragdale Foundation, the Hambidge Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Ernest Bloch Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposiums. She served on the faculty of the Luzerne Music Center, on the board of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Composers Forum, as President of Friends of Music at Cal State LA, and has recently joined the team at the Institute for Composer Diversity.
Graef is passionate about advocacy and activism, and her works often take on themes of social justice, feminism, nature, or the environment. Her compositions span from solo and small chamber ensembles to works for symphonic orchestra and wind ensemble. Commissions include Yakona (2023), commissioned and inspired by the Newport Symphony Orchestra and the Yakona Nature Preserve in Newport, Oregon; the solo work, Blue Vishuddha, for violin virtuoso Elizabeth Pitcairn for her legendary “Red Mendelssohn” 1720 Stradivarius violin (2014); multiple song cycles including Stone (2014), for soprano, trumpet, and piano, inspired by the experiences of writer Carol Samson – a teacher at Columbine High School at the time of the 1999 tragedy; and A Woman’s Life (and Love) (2019); a feminist song cycle commissioned as a companion piece to Robert Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben (A Woman's Love (and Life)); Polar Bear (2021) for trombone, tenor voice, and electronics, about climate change and commissioned in part by the Ohio Arts Council, the Johnstone Fund for New Music, and Puffin Foundation West Ltd; and Meadowlark (2021), a chamber piece commissioned by the Meadowlark Trio in Portland, Oregon.
“Graef is passionate about programming music by diverse composers and using music as a platform for advocacy through art.”
Originally from Nassau County, New York, Graef earned her Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance and composition from Southern Methodist University, and her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Southern California. She has been on the faculty of the Cal State LA Department of Music since 2000, where she teaches theory and musicianship, composition-related coursework, and a diverse, current-events-oriented GE course about Women in Music. She strongly believes in programming music by diverse composers and about music as a platform for advocacy through art as part of her teaching and mentorship. In 2022 she received the Cal State LA Outstanding Professor Award.
She is passionate about traveling and nature, and served for several years as the Stranding Coordinator for the Alaska Whale Foundation – a non-profit research organization in Southeast Alaska. Her greatest passion project is spending time with her family and learning about life from her brilliant daughter.
