Sara Renner, DMA
Dr. Sara Renner joined the faculty at the University of Texas El Paso in 2023, where she serves as Assistant Professor of Instruction for Applied Oboe and teaches courses in music literature. An accomplished oboist with a multifaceted career, Dr. Renner is an active performer, educator, and recording artist. She has taught at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, the University of Alabama, Washburn University, and most recently the Omaha Conservatory of Music.
An active performer, Dr. Renner currently serves as Acting Principal Oboe for the El Paso Symphony Orchestra. Her orchestral experience has spanned numerous orchestras in the Midwest including the Springfield (MO) Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Sioux City Symphony, and South Dakota Symphony. In her orchestral experience, she has shared the stage with a variety of artists, including Baritenor Michael Spyres, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Celtic Woman.
An advocate for new music, Dr. Renner commissioned a set of new works for unaccompanied oboe and English horn for her first solo album, Oboe: Unfolded, which was released in 2020. A virtual recital of Oboe: Unfolded was programmed for the 2nd Annual International Double Reed Society Virtual Symposium in 2021. Dr. Renner’s most recent recording engagement was for oboist and composer Alyssa Morris’s newest album, Ruminations (MSR Classics Label, 2022), where she played second oboe on Parable of a Stormy Sea. This collaboration led to a featured recital of music for oboe trios on the 34th season of the celebrated Vespers Concert Series in Omaha, Nebraska in 2023, including the Midwestern Premiere of Parable of a Stormy Sea. Dr. Renner has been an ensemble member in numerous world premieres at multiple International Double Reed Society Conferences, including works by composers Luke Dahn and Kincaid Rabb.
In the summer of 2017, Dr. Renner joined the festival orchestra of the OperaMaya International Music Festival based in Cancún, Mexico as Principal Oboe, where she performed across the Yucatán. During this time, OperaMaya made history as the first symphonic performances in the cities of Mahahual, Quintana Roo (2018), Francisco Uh May, Tulum (2019), and Tihosuco, Quintana Roo (2023). Dr. Renner was appointed to Woodwind Faculty in 2020 and continues to serve the festival during their summer season.
As the former principal oboist of Shen Yun Performing Arts, Dr. Renner has performed in numerous opera houses and concert halls in the United States and abroad, including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, David Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center, Barbican Centre (London), Arts Centre (Melbourne), Bunka Kaikan Theatre (Tokyo), and others. She completed three international tours across Canada, Europe, Argentina, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.
Dr. Renner’s research and scholarly interests lie within the realm of theology as performance and connecting early music to contemporary works. Her article “A Musical Sacrament: The Trinity of James MacMillan’s The World’s Ransoming” was a featured article in the 2020 International Double Reed Society Virtual Symposium, and is published in The Double Reed (Vol. 43, No. 2), the journal of the International Double Reed Society.
Most recently, Dr. Renner’s research interests have spanned into performance practice and pedagogy of new works. Her lecture recital, Beyond Britten: An Introduction to “Myths” by Stacey Berk, was presented at the 53rd Annual International Double Reed Society Conference in 2024.
Dr. Renner holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Performance from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and the Columbus State University Schwob School of Music, respectively. She received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in 2019 from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where her secondary discipline was Musicology with an emphasis in Early Music. Her teachers include Dr. Mark Ostoich, Dwight Parry, Christopher Philpotts, and Dr. Susan Hatch Tomkiewicz.
Contact Info
Department of Music
Office: FFA M132
Email: srrenner@utep.edu
Office Phone: (915) 747-6402