Sarah Thrasher, bassoon

Sarah Thrasher has played bassoon and contrabassoon with the UCDSO since 2002, joining the symphony on the France 2003 tour. Sarah is eternally glad that she joined the UCDSO in her junior year because the dividends continue to this day. In addition to her being able to travel to Paris, she has made more long-term friends in the UCDSO than through any other UC Davis avenue. Sarah also enjoys performing in chamber ensembles when possible. Sarah’s almost-religious UCDSO performance moments include: Mahler’s 4th in the Mondavi Center’s opening concert, Daphnis et Chloé, and her conquering the Till Eulenspiegel quintet.

Sarah graduated from UC Davis in winter 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in Evolution & Ecology and a minor in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). She currently works as a GIS Specialist at the Information Center for the Environment in the UCD Dept of Environmental Science. She uses digital mapping of historic and current Sierra vegetation to document responses to climate change. Unfortunately this means she spends 40 hours a week in front of a computer. This can’t go on for 40 years. Sarah has always been interested in nutrition, fitness, prevention and counseling, and has now decided to combine these in a new career: nursing.  She will start nursing school in August 2009 at Duke University in North Carolina and will work at Duke Med Center afterwards to pay back all of that debt; after that fire is controlled, she plans to become a prevention-focused Nurse Practitioner either by continuing at Duke or coming back to California ... and to the UCDSO!

e-mail: slthrasher@ucdavis.edu