Sarah Jaewon Catt
Sarah Jaewon Catt serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Elmhurst University. Prior to this appointment, she taught for a decade in the Illinois K-12 public school setting, serving the students of Indian Prairie School District 204 and Township High School District 214. She received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), her Master of Arts degree in Educational Leadership from Concordia University Chicago and her Master of Music Education degree from UIUC. Catt has worked with middle school choirs, high school choirs and vocal jazz ensembles across the Midwest as a clinician, adjudicator, district, regional and All-State conductor. She has also served as a guest speaker for presentations and conferences, including commencement speaker for the 2019 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music Convocation, speaker at the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA) MusEd talks and panelist for the ILMEA Women in Music Education session. Her writing has been featured in publications, including her work for the Illinois Music Educator Journal, “Let’s Do Better: Seeing Color in Music Education.”
Professor Catt is a member of ILMEA, the National Association for Music Education and the American Choral Directors Association, where she served on the Illinois executive board. She actively works to approach her music and teaching from a framework of equity and inclusion, with the passionate belief that music should serve all people, embracing all abilities, identities and experience levels.