Sharon Mautner-Rodgers is a California native and won numerous competitions both as a soloist and a member of the Trio Con Brio. Sharon was a awarded a full music scholarship to attend the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences where she received the Herbert Zipper award for excellence. Sharon attended the Aspen Music Festival, ENCORE school for strings, Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, Taos Chamber Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Bear Lake Music Festival, Oregon Coast Music Festival, and Endless Mountain Music Festival.
Sharon has been a member of many professional orchestras, including the New World, Charleston, Naples, Memphis, Cedar Rapids, Quad Cities, Dubuque, Des Moines, Honolulu, Malaysian Philharmonic, and Wichita Symphonies. Her orchestral tours have taken her to Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, The Bastille Opera House in Paris, and to Singapore.
Sharon has taught cello and coached chamber music at the Luzerne Music Center in NY, the Weathersfield Music Camp in VT, the Drake University Community School, and Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, in addition to maintaining a private studio for over 20 years. Several of Sharon’s Gustavus students have won the school’s solo/aria competition.
Currently, Sharon is Associate Principal Cello of the South Dakota Symphony and Principal Cello of the Mankato Symphony, as well as a regular sub with the Minnesota Orchestra.
Locally, Sharon has also performed with the La Crosse Symphony, Rochester Symphony, and Minneapolis Pops Orchestra. She performs chamber music often with GAC faculty, as well as part of the “Music on the Hill” chamber series in Mankato. Each summer, Sharon performs as Associate Principal cellist with the Missouri Symphony “Hot Summer Nights” festival.