About Us
Cottonwood String Quartet
6
Sarah McCoy
Violin
Sarah McCoy is a violinist, violist, and educator based in Cheyenne, Wyoming. A native of Laramie, Wyoming, Sarah received her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Music Education both from the University of Wyoming and in 2018 was named the Wyoming Music Educator’s Association Young Educator of the year. Sarah is a past Orchestra Vice-President of the Wyoming Music Educators Association and past president of the Wyoming chapter of the American Strings Teachers Association. Currently, Sarah teaches 5th and 6th grade orchestra in Laramie County School District #1 and maintains a private violin and viola studio. Sarah is a tenured member of the viola section with the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra and holds the position of Assistant Concert Master with the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra. When she’s not teaching or performing she can be found with her husband Spencer chasing after their two toddlers, Maggie and Luke.
Sabrina Romney Lloyd
Viola
According to a letter in the Aspen Times, Sabrina Romney Lloyd has been known to lay down some “fiery licks that have no doubt been appropriated by the likes of Jimmy Page and other heavy metal rockers”. For the past ten years she had been a core violist of the Fort Collins Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony, Greeley Philharmonic, and Wyoming Symphony orchestras, frequently filling in as Principal and Assistant Principal Violist.
Sabrina holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Viola Performance and a French minor from Utah State University, where she studied with the Fry Street Quartet. She received her Master of Music degree from Colorado State University, participating in their Graduate String Quartet Program. As a chamber musician, she has received coaching from the Ying, Calder, Shanghai, and Borromeo Quartets, in addition to the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. While in graduate school, Sabrina was a prizewinner of T. Gordon Parks Collegiate Concerto Competition and Colorado State University’s Concerto competition, affording her the opportunity to tour as a soloist performing at the Breckenridge Riverwalk Center and Aspen’s Harris Hall.
Sabrina has enjoyed spending her summers participating in diverse music programs such as the Aspen Music Festival, Le Domaine Forget, the Castleman Quartet Program in Boulder, Colorado, and the American Conservatory of Music in Fontainebleau, France.
A versatile musician, Sabrina also plays the violin, the piano, and sings. On the rare occasions when she is not musically inclined, Sabrina loves to read, explore the great outdoors, or spend time with her family.
Amy Cowell
Cello
Amy Cowell is a cellist and educator based in Laramie, Wyoming. She has been an active member of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra cello section since the late 1990’s. Amy is
also a substitute cellist in several regional orchestras, including the Cheyenne and Fremont Symphony Orchestras. Amy also enjoys playing Ethnic Folk Music with the band Cedar & Flint. For the past twenty years, Amy has taught general music, choir, and orchestra at Snowy Range Academy and private cello lessons, in Laramie, Wyoming. She began her study of the cello in her native town of Casper, Wyoming when she was eight years old. Amy received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wyoming in 2005, where she studied under Professor Barbara Thiem; she earned her Master’s of Music Education from the University of Wyoming in 2015. When not playing cello she enjoys spending time in the great Wyoming outdoors with her son Isaiah and black Lab, Boone.
Ashley Schnell
Violin
Born in Lincoln, NE, violinist/violist Ashley Schnell began playing the violin at the age of four. She has been living, teaching, and performing in Laramie and around Wyoming since 2012. She received her B.M. in Music Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her M.M. in Violin Performance from the University of Wyoming, with an additional year for viola studies. Ashley performs regularly with the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra (2015-present) and Wyoming Symphony Orchestra (2016-present) and is a sub with the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra (2022-present) and Opera Steamboat (2022). She has performed at famous venues during the Celebrate Haydn Orchestra Festival including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Haydnsaal in Einstadt, Austria, and St. Nicholas Church in Prague as concertmistress and chamber soloist. Schnell has been a part of many chamber ensembles over the years, including the Alma A. Turechek String Quartet, Coe College String Trio, UNCG String Quartet, UNCG Violin Quartet, Ravel String Quartet, and Albany String Quartet. She has studied violin with Dr. John Fadial, Dr. Fabian Lopez, Dr. Robert Emile, Donna Carnes, and Beth Hoffman; and studied viola with Jim Przygocki. She has also received chamber music coaching from the Danish String Quartet, Ying Quartet, and Linden Quartet. In her freetime, Ashley enjoys hiking, biking, stargazing, relaxing with a good book, and listening to all the wonderful music that exists out in the world.