about

Internationally known founding member of Turtle Island String Quartet, soloist, recording artist, and respected educator, Irene Sazer is an in-demand genre-hopping violinist/fiddler of many styles. She founded Real Vocal String Quartet and the School of Strings and String Improvisation in Berkeley, California. Sazer’s recording First Things First highlights her original songs. She has performed with Ali Akbar Khan, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Smoky Robinson, David Grisman, Linda Rondstadt, Bjork, and Billy Joel, performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and concert halls around the world. A grant awarded composer, she has also built a body of work in visual arts with a distinctive portfolio of drawings, paintings and films.
Real Vocal String Quartethttps://www.rvsq.com

Honors

  • Individual Artist Award, City of Berkeley Civic Arts Grant for multi-media project with Mutsun-Ohlone artist Kanyon Coyote Woman Kanyon Sayer-Roods 2020
  • Special Award in the Arts, Gerbode Foundation Grant for creation, direction, production, composing cultural collaboration recording and premiere at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 2019
  • Lucas Artist Resident for musical composition at Montalvo Arts Center 2015-2017
  • Investing in Artists Grant, Center for Cultural Innovation 2014 San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music Grant 2013
  • Commendation by City of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee cultural ambassador 2012
  • Cultural Ambassador for the US Department of State and American Voices, American Music Abroad, performances, education and collaboration in Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latvia and Lithuania 2012
  • Platinum Record Award for Feist “Metals” winner of the Juno Award of Adult Alternative Album 2012
  • Gold Record Award for Winter Solstice II, Turtle Island String Quartet 1986