Sarah Pool Wilhelm

Salutes MMVC alumna Sarah Pool Wilhelm @spoolhelm -- a veteran of the national tours of @wecomefromaway and Something Rotten! @rottenbroadway -- now leading @benzinis_traveling_band of the North American tour of Water for Elephants @w4emusical !

Over the past few weeks, you’ve met almost all of our wonderful band members. For our last #MeetUsMonday post, we’d love to introduce you to our extraordinary leader and MD, Sarah Pool Wilhelm! Hi there! I’m so thrilled and honored to be choosing the ride across the country as the Music Director of this circus! I grew up playing piano just like my Dad from about age 4. A break in high school to focus on playing oboe led to being a Drum Major in marching band and the beginnings of my conducting career, but college brought me back to piano where I earned a bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance, culminating in a recital that included a duet with my Dad. The following few years were spent setting the foundation of a music directing career with an internship at PCPA and a master’s degree in Vocal Coaching from Oklahoma City University. I have been consistently working in musical theater at regional theaters, touring, or teaching at the university level ever since. Notably, I was AMD on the Something Rotten tour, and most recently, I was the Music Director for the Come From Away tour for the last 2 years! Outside of music, I love crafting, playing cards, watching or going to sporting events (especially gymnastics and football), skiing, spending time with friends and family, and working as a Repertoire Manager for Appcompanist. Most importantly, I love being a Dog Mom to Toby who travels with me on tour sometimes! Fun facts: - I was a competitive gymnast for 12 years, making this show a very full circle moment by bringing my past life together with my current life! - Benedict, our music supervisor, and I have been best friends for 11 years, but this is our first time working together! - I wear a bow in my hair every time I conduct a show because the conductor position has so often been held by men, and I hope to be an example that girls can do this job, too! #w4emusical #waterforelephants #roaddontmakeyouyoung #musicdirector

Meet the Maestras on the W4E Music Team!! In an industry that has been largely dominated by men historically, it is refreshing and feels like a major win to have 63% of the touring band be women, and when expanded to include programmers and supervisors and rehearsal pianists, we’re almost at 50%. I have to thank Maestra for all the work they have done to create visibility for women, non binary, and trans musicians in theatre. Almost all of us on Water for Elephants have been thru the Maestra mentorship program, and I have a hard time believing that’s only a coincidence. Jayla McLennan - Associate MD/Keys 2 Millisa Henderson - Guitars + Banjos Victoria Hurlburt - Violin Maria Vincelette - Reeds Julianne Merrill - PatchMaster + Ableton, etc Lexi Vollero - PatchMaster + Ableton, etc @maestramusicorg @jayla_mc @mjh_guitarist @toraidhe @marsmusicc @juliannemerrill @lexivollero @patchmasternyc @w4emusical

Water for Elephants is open!! Meet the Music Team for the First Tour!! We have an amazing team and I’m so thankful to work with such wonderful and kind humans that are also incredibly talented. Pigpen Theatre Co. - Songwriters Benedict Braxton-Smith - Music Supervisor + Co-Orchestrator + Best Friend Julianne Merrill & Lexi Vollero from PatchMaster - Ableton + Tracks + Timecode Drew Nichols & Nick Schenkel from Randy Cohen keyboards - MainStage Abel Garriga - Rehearsal Pianist/OG associate MD Adam Beskind - Rehearsal Pianist/OG music assistant Jayla McLennan - Associate MD/Keys 2 Cort Baussmann - Trumpet Millisa Henderson - Guitars + Banjos Victoria Hurlburt - Violin Spencer Inch - Drums Maria Vincelette - Reeds Bakari Williams - Bass Cha Ramos - fight director/photo bomber [not pictured] - Mike Dobson - Drum consultant/OG drummer @w4emusical @pigpentheatreco @benedictbraxtonsmith @juliannemerrill @lexivollero @cohenkeyboards @drewsicalthemusical @glaurung2003 @abel.garriga @adam.beskind @jayla_mc @cort.baussmann @mjh_guitarist @toraidhe @itsasinch @marsmusicc @bakariwllms @chaofalltrades @dobson321 @maestramusicorg

Brava to alumna Sarah Pool Wilhelm @spoolhelm , newly appointed music director/conductor of the North American tour of Water for Elephants!

Back on the road but this time I’m running away with the circus! Well, I personally won’t be doing the flipping or the swinging on the trapeze this time, but as a former gymnast, I am very excited to revisit and combine a small part of my past life with my present life as the Music Director/Conductor of the Water for Elephants Tour alongside an amazing new teammate @jayla_mc as AMD, continuing on the road with @itsasinch behind the drums, and finally working together with one of my best friends @benedictbraxtonsmith as Music Supervisor. There are so many thanks to give, but an additional special thanks go to @abel.garriga and @adam.beskind on Team Music for their support and shared W4E wisdom during the rehearsal process, and to @iamthekaiser for the endless support on this ride. Week 1 complete. More to come! [Swipe for some gems] @w4emusical @maestramusicorg #W4E #W4Etour #maestra #musicdirector #conductor

Finding the right words for this post has been quite the challenge - might be why it’s happening 3 months after The Final Bow - but how do I wrap up a 20-month tour into one single post or caption? The Come From Away tour will always hold a special place in my heart, and already feels like a pivotal moment for my career. I feel like I learned so much from both the highs and the lows: had many triumphs and made a boat load of mistakes, made some lifelong friends and am still grieving some that were lost, had significant inner growth and uncovered more shortcomings, stretched my musicianship into a different style than I had ever played before and got rusty in my skills after hardly playing anything else for so long. For my birthday last year, Andrew gave me a bracelet that says “Don’t let the bad days win.” It has been a reminder to me that bad days will exist, but the good days deserve the opportunity to outweigh the bad; it just takes a little work to give the positives more energy and focus. It’s not a secret, but I’m not exactly proud that I left my first tour early. I let the bad overpower the good, and it consumed me to the point that I couldn’t continue. CFA began as a personal redemption tour, but it became so much more. I am really proud of all the things I learned and accomplished over the last 2 years, but the thing I am most proud of is: I completed the tour. And it wasn’t all perfect, but the good days won. After 473 performances, 269 of them conducted by me, we took our Final Bow on May 9, 2025. Thank you to *everyone* involved on the Come From Away Second National Tour. It was the ride of a lifetime. 💜✌️ #ComeFromAway #Tour #Maestra #MusicDirector #Conductor #FinalBow #Gander

Come From Away Band North American Tour ‘24-‘25 This group needed a spot on the grid. Because they’re incredibly kind, wickedly talented, and amazingly good lookin’. That’s all. That’s the post.

Gratitude. Love. Support. Full heart. Full circle. On January 19, 2024, @broadwaydallas announced that Come From Away would be at the Winspear Opera House in their next season. Exactly one year later, on January 19, 2025, I conducted my 200th performance with my Mom in the audience and my Dad backstage with a score watching the monitors on the final day in Dallas where over 100 people came to see me in the show throughout the week. I am so thankful for all of the people that came, but I’m even more thankful for what they mean to me and everything they’ve done for me throughout my life. From elementary music to band to college to gymnastics to church to family, practically every season of my upbringing was represented in some way this week. We artists don’t always get to work on pieces that we love, and we don’t always love the pieces we work on. When we’re on tour, we get to see some cool places but it also means we miss our loved ones back home. I have been very lucky to get to work on a piece that I love for the last 16+ months and that I got to share it with so many loved ones in my hometown. To add to the fun, I got to spend some time with and introduce my parents to Beverley Bass and her husband Tom Stawicki (he’s still fine), connecting about American Airlines and TCU. We celebrated our 100th performance for Year 2 and 358 for those of us that started in Year 1! This week has been a very special moment in my career that I will never forget. My heart is incredibly full. Thank you to Mom, Dad, and Sam for everything. 💜

Gratitude. Love. Support. Full heart. Full circle. On January 19, 2024, @broadwaydallas announced that Come From Away would be at the Winspear Opera House in their next season. Exactly one year later, on January 19, 2025, I conducted my 200th performance with my Mom in the audience and my Dad backstage with a score watching the monitors on the final day in Dallas where over 100 people came to see me in the show throughout the week. I am so thankful for all of the people that came, but I’m even more thankful for what they mean to me and everything they’ve done for me throughout my life. From elementary music to band to college to gymnastics to church to family, practically every season of my upbringing was represented in some way this week. We artists don’t always get to work on pieces that we love, and we don’t always love the pieces we work on. When we’re on tour, we get to see some cool places but it also means we miss our loved ones back home. I have been very lucky to get to work on a piece that I love for the last 16+ months and that I got to share it with so many loved ones in my hometown. To add to the fun, I got to spend some time with and introduce my parents to Beverley Bass and her husband Tom Stawicki (he’s still fine), connecting about American Airlines and TCU. We celebrated our 100th performance for Year 2 and 358 for those of us that started in Year 1! This week has been a very special moment in my career that I will never forget. My heart is incredibly full. Thank you to Mom, Dad, and Sam for everything. 💜

A DREAM COME TRUE!! 🥰 I get to play my favorite show in one of my home theaters and I’m SO. EXCITED!!!! 🤩 Come From Away will be in Dallas at The Winspear Opera House in January for a whole week, with a few other dates in Texas a couple weeks before. I don’t do every show, so be sure to let me know which performance you’re coming to so I can make sure I’m conducting that night and so I can say hello after! headshot: @kristinlitz ✨ graphic: @richardchazgomez 🎨

#TobyOnTour