Sarah Bauhan grew up in the Monadnock Region in New Hampshire, where dance music is part of a continuous cultural tradition. She began playing the tin whistle at twelve years of age and started performing for the public two years later in Dudley Laufman’s Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra. Her godfather, the late Newton F. Tolman, a flute player and writer from Nelson, New Hampshire was Sarah’s first musical influence and she adapted his traditional flute style to the whistle. In addition, she was heavily influenced by the revival of Celtic music during the 1970s and 80s. Sarah also has had a model and inspiration for composing original dance music in her friend and neighbor Bob McQuillen.

In 1987, Sarah came across a wood concert flute made in 1912 by Haynes of Boston, coincidentally the first kind of flute Newt Tolman played. She transferred her vast repertoire and technical virtuosity from the whistle to the flute, thus opening up an exciting new dimension of performance. But it wasn’t until Sarah met up with the fine wood and silver whistles made by Chris Abell of Asheville, North Carolina, that she really established the whistle as a serious instrument, and came into her own.

With all these gorgeous instruments in hand, Sarah produced her first solo album Chasing the New Moon in February 1991, on her own Whistler’s Music label. Drawing from her own tradition as well as those from other cultures, Sarah put together a diverse collection of music held together by the fluid tone of her whistles and flute. This album garnered more than a dozen rave reviews from many of the established folk publications. In 1993 she followed it with her second solo album, The Untamed Grasses, on the Alcazar label. 1999 Sarah brought the release of Broad Waters, after a six year hiatus. Once again, expanding on the traditional music that she grew up with, and her instrumental pieces arranged with complementary accompaniment, she creates moods from sadness and reflection to joy and exhilaration. In addition, this album presents more of Sarah’s trademark laments and airs, including the Lament for Iona - a memorial tune for four young men from the tiny island of Iona, in the west of Scotland. She is just completing her fourth album, Lathrop's Waltz to be released in the fall of 2007.

Through the years Sarah has performed at festivals, concerts, and dances around the country. She has also taught whistle and flute to both adults and children at dance camps, in schools and in workshops. Her performance options range from a simple duo with a guitarist to a four-piece band, including fiddle, guitar, bass, and piano.