About
Sara d’Ippolito Reichert is a guitarist, composer, and educator.
Sara d’Ippolito Reichert is an award-winning performing artist, composer, and educator with musical influences that span many genres. Born into a multicultural and musical family, d'Ippolito grew up in Lamezia Terme (Calabria, Italy). She graduated in Classical Guitar Performance from the “Santa Cecilia” Conservatory of Music in Rome, Italy, under Arturo Tallini, after having studied with Marco Rossetti in Vibo Valentia. She has attended masterclasses with Roman Vlad, Sergio Assad, Enrico Pierannunzi, Rolf Lislevand, Nuccio D'Angelo, Duo Maccari-Pugliese, and Heiki Mätlik among others.
d'Ippolito has performed in numerous venues as a soloist and as part of ensembles. As a theater lover, she loves to collaborate in different productions. In 2010 she worked with Nicola Piovani as an on-stage musician in Shakespeare's play “Two Gentlemen of Verona”, adapted by Vincenzo Cerami, held at the Globe Theater of Rome. Other notable performances are in 2011 as a soloist in "Maria de Buenos Aires", Piazzolla’s tango opera presented by Danceworks Performance Company, the Milwaukee Opera Theatre, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee dance department at Calvary Presbyterian Church. In 2015 she performed in the ballet “Giselle”, presented by Milwaukee Ballet at Marcus Center for the Arts. In 2023, she performed Germaine Tailleferre’s concerto for two guitars and orchestra with the Orquesta Juvenil Universitaria Eduardo Mata (OJUEM) in Mexico City at the Sala Nezahualcóyotl.
d'Ippolito has many interests and experiences as a guitarist, ukulele player, and vocalist. She has worked in various teaching settings: one-on-one and group environments, schools and outreach programs, workshops, and masterclasses. From 2012 to 2016 she was the head of the guitar program at the national award-winning Latino Arts Strings Program in Milwaukee, WI. Since 2015, d'Ippolito leads the Jazz-Folk duo “Sara and Kenny”. She has lived in Rome, Tallinn, Milwaukee, London, Berlin, Chicago, and now Minneapolis.
After a year at Roosevelt University in Chicago, under the instruction of Denis Azabagic, d'Ippolito is currently pursuing a DMA at the University of Minnesota with Maja Radovanlija. Sara received first prize at the 2024 Guitar Symposium at Queens University of Charlotte and most recently received first prize at the University of Louisville Guitar Festival and Competition. Her research is focused on Women and Gender studies in classical guitar, highlighting diverse women composers from the past, present and future.
Sara d’Ippolito Reichert plays a guitar by Noemi Schembri
Videos
Sheet Music
Bella di papà” (Italian for Daddy’s darling) was inspired by imagining how my friend An Tran might lull his daughter, Ana-Lucia, to sleep. The melody in the 3/4 section is shaped to articulate her name through pitch and rhythm.
The piece is also a broader reflection on parenthood. I had lost my father the year before writing this music, and by the end of the compositional process, I was pregnant myself. I found myself thinking about the hopes and expectations we carry as parents, the expectations we inherit and experience as children, and how all of these are ultimately released when we cross into whatever comes next.
“Bella di papà” is what my father used to call me. I wanted to carry that warmth into this composition and to reflect the love An has for his daughter, as a wish that Ana-Lucia might always feel that warmth carrying her.