About Sahada

Hi! I’m Sahada.

Sahada Buckley is a violinist, violist and interdisciplinary artist from Fairhope, Alabama. Sahada is a Co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of The Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival based in Fairhope, AL. Sahada has collaborated with many notable classical musicians including faculty from UCLA, Michigan State University, and the Pro Arte String Quartet. Additionally, she has worked closely with acclaimed composers like David Ludwig, Michael Ippolito, Laura Schwendinger, Mason Bates, George Meyer and Will Healy. Sahada was appointed in September 2024 to the first violin section of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra. She was appointed in June 2025 as the permanent violist in the Madison based string quartet, The Ancora String Quartet. Sahada and her husband, Trace Johnson, recently recorded the Schulhoff Duo for Violin and Cello on Parma Records which will be released on CD in July 2025 on the CD Trace Johnson: Works for Cello. 

Sahada has performed with groups such as Present Music, Oakwood Chamber Players, Midsummers Music, and Florentine Opera. Sahada is an active teacher and has a full studio of violin and viola students in Madison, WI. Sahada received her Master of Music Degree in Violin Performance from the University of Wisconsin – Madison where she was a member of the graduate string quartet, the Marvin Rabin String Quartet. Sahada earned dual Bachelor of Music Degrees in Violin Performance and Music Theory from the University of Georgia where she studied with Levon Ambartsumian. Including Ambartsumian, her primary teachers have been Shakhida Azimkhodjaeva, Paul Sonner, Michael Heald and David Perry.  She won first prize at the University of Georgia Concerto Competition performing Édouard Lalo’s Violin Concerto “Symphonie Espagnole” in 2018. She has performed in major venues across the United States and abroad in Brazil, London, and Singapore.

As a non-classical performer, Sahada has partnered with musicians within the free improvisation community on a national level. In April of 2022, Sahada was invited to perform with her experimental duo, Girls With Hands, at the New York City Electroacoustic Improvisation Summit. Sahada has recorded extensively with Athens-based experimental performer, Killick Hinds and was a part of the experimental free improvisation group Thunder O(h)m!. Currently, she has an experimental violin and cello duo with her husband Trace called Vōche. An avid hiker, Sahada through-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2019 with a violin in her backpack.

Sahada lives and teaches privately in Madison, WI in her home studio and is a teacher for the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra Music Makers Program.