Sasha Launer, flute

Bay Area based flutist Sasha Launer performs extensively as an orchestral, chamber, and solo musician around the United States. She is a founding member of the conductorless chamber orchestra One Found Sound. Additionally, Sasha has performed with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Marin Symphony, Oakland Symphony, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Stockton Symphony, Merced Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Symphony Napa Valley, and at the Utah Festival of Opera and Musical Theater, as well as at summer festivals at the Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, and Brevard Music Center. Miss Launer held the Principal Piccolo position with the San Francisco Wind Ensemble from its inception. She has worked with conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Andrew Davis, Erich Kunzel, and David Zinman, among others. In the spring of 2010 Sasha had the opportunity to perform John Adams’s Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center with the composer himself conducting.

Miss Launer is a founding member of the woodwind quintet OFSQ, an offshoot of One Found Sound. Additionally, she was a performing member of the award-winning chamber ensemble Areon Flutes from 2013-2016, and she continues to serve on their Board of Directors. As a chamber musician Sasha has collaborated with musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Seattle Symphony. A founding member of the Vivace Flute Quartet, she performed with the group throughout the United States, Costa Rica, and Chile.

As a soloist, Launer has won awards in competitions held by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Schubert Club, Thursday Musical, and Upper Midwest Flute Association. A fierce advocate of new music, Sasha has premiered pieces by Gabriela Lena Frank, Mark Applebaum, Elainie Lillios, and Sahba Aminikia, among others.

In addition to her performance career, for many years Sasha ran an extensive private flute studio, teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division, Bridgepoint Music, and Scherzo Music School, as well as being the former director of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra’s Flute Ensembles. Sasha also worked as a recording engineer at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for five years.

Launer received her Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with San Francisco Symphony Principal Flutist Tim Day, and she received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University studying with former New York Philharmonic Principal Flutist Jeanne Baxtresser and International flute soloist Alberto Almarza. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, previous instructors include Julia Bogorad-Kogan of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.