Caldwell (Sarah) is born in Maryville, Missouri.

A child prodigy violinist, Sarah Caldwell graduates from the University of Arkansas. and comes to Boston to attend the New England Conservatory of Music. She studies opera with Boris Goldovsky, goes on to conduct major symphony orchestras throughout the U.S., and founds the Opera Company of Boston in 1965.* A passionate though sometimes difficult personality, she stages and directs numerous U.S. opera premieres and 20th-century works in Boston, nationally, and internationally. One musician later notes, ”She makes you want to play better than you ever played in your life, and then she makes it impossible.” Caldwell dies in Portland, Maine, on March 23, 2006.