Sally Clarke was born in Brisbane, Australia. She received her earliest violin tuition at the age of 10; one year later she took up the viola, which quickly became her principal musical interest.

She studied with Elizabeth Morgan at the University of Queensland (Brisbane) from 1983-86. After graduating with Honours, Sally continued her studies on a DAAD scholarship, firstly in Cologne, and then in the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1988 she was invited to perform in the “Schleswig-Holstein Musikfest Orchesterakademie” as principal violist, under the baton of Sergiu Celibidache, from whose mentoring she benefited greatly. She attended masterclasses of Rainer Moog and Yuri Bashmyet, and has herself taught numerous workshops and masterclasses, and coached many youth orchestras. Sally teaches online at PlayWithaPro.

Since 1992 she has been a permanent member of the Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart (SWR); she also performs regularly with the prestigious Australian World Orchestra.

Chamber music has taken her to many places and festivals in Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Australia. She has performed live on stage with modern dance and world music, and improvised to silent movies of the 1920s. The string trio, “Trio Krása”, was founded in 2020 to perform “forgotten music”, works by composers banned during the Holocaust.

Sally’s recordings for German and Australian radio are of valuable lesser-known repertoire, for example, the Viola Sonata of Wilhelm Killmayr. The CD …another sort of fire was released in 2006; the CD Blue Ayre was released in 2013, with her harp trio of the same name.