Sara Petokas

Sara specializes in working with adult learners and has 8 years of experience in teaching adult musicians. She is very devoted to her students and creates individualized curriculum for each student to help them achieve their goals and celebrate the joy in re-learning to play! Sara also works with high school and college students in audition preparation, and has experience teaching large classes of young students and students with special needs.

An active performer and educator based in Indianapolis, Sara Petokas performs regularly on both modern and period instruments. Sara holds a Bachelors in Music Education from Mansfield University, a Masters in Horn Performance from the Eastman School of Music and is currently finishing her Doctorate in Horn Performance and Literature from Indiana University. Sara is formerly the Horn Instructor at Marian University. She is also the lead teaching artist and writes the curriculum for El Sistema Indianapolis which provides music education to underserved students.

On the baroque horn, Sara has performed with the Indiana University Baroque Orchestra, the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project and the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra on a Project for the South Carolina Bach Society. She recently performed Handel’s “Parnasso in Festa” and the “Teleman Concerto for two horns” TWV 52:D2 with the Indiana University Baroque Orchestra.

On the modern horn, Sara holds the chair of Fourth Horn with the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, and performs regularly Danville Symphony Orchestra and Carmel Symphony Orchestra in Indianapolis. Sara is also on the substitute list for the Kokomo Symphony Orchestra and Terre Heute Symphony Orchestra. During the Summer of 2018, Sara performed as principal horn in the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival Orchestra, in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Sara plays regularly with The Flower City Brass, a quintet founded at Eastman in 2017. The quintet has performed around the world, most recently with the Aspen Music Festival in the Summer of 2021. The quintet was also invited to compete at the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble Competition in July 2019. In the summer of 2018, they appeared in Leksand, Sweden, in conjunction with the Stockholm Chamber Brass. In the Summer of 2017, the quintet performed in Höff, Germany, invited as a fellowship quintet to a festival with the Rekkenze Brass. In February 2018, the quintet performed as featured soloists with the Eastman Wind Ensemble; a composition for Brass quintet and Wind Ensemble, “New York City Scapes,” by Jeff Tyzik.