A native of Dallas, Texas, Ruth Meyer Sacks received her B.M. degree in Music Composition and Theory from the Oberlin Conservatory, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Composition from the University of Pennsylvania. Her composition teachers included George Crumb, Richard Wernick, Jay Reise, Chinary Ung, Ed Miller, Walter Aschaffenburg, Simon Sargon, and Thom David Mason. In addition, she studied piano with Peter Takács, Frances Walker, and Alfred Mouledous. 

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Among Sacks’ numerous prizes and honors are three BMI Student Composer  Awards, an ASCAP Raymond Hubbell Musical Scholarship Award, First Prize in the  New England Reed Trio International Chamber Music Composition Competition, and  First Prize in the (former) International League of Women Composers’ Seventh Annual  Search for New Music. Her compositions have been performed by the New Music  Consort at Weill Recital Hall (at Carnegie Hall), the New England Reed Trio, the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, the South Florida Youth Symphony, pianist Liliana Maffiotte (Barcelona, Spain), and double-bass player Bertram Turetzky. In addition, she composed the musical score for the documentary film produced for the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of  Pennsylvania, and her compositions have been performed at the College Music Society’s Thirtieth Annual Meeting, the Florida State University Festival of New Music, the (former) Memphis State University New Music Festival, and the University of Nebraska at Kearney New Music Festival.

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Sacks' solo guitar piece, entitled In Memoriam, Music For Our Time (commissioned by the Orpheus Academy of Music and Austin guitarist Klondike Steadman) is published by Bergmann Edition. Sacks’ composition entitled Sunshine City and the Green Demons for woodwind quartet is published by Earnestly Music (of Frank E. Warren Music Service). Cellist Barbara George and pianist Jim James performed and recorded Sacks’ composition Three Poems for Cello and Piano, which is included on their 2019 CD entitled Femme, Music by Women Composers. Her current project is a seven-movement work for chorus and orchestra based on texts assembled by the composer from signs held by members of the homeless population in Austin, Texas. 

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Presently, Sacks resides in Austin, Texas, where she is active as a free-lance  composer, as well as a piano, composition, and musicianship instructor at the Orpheus Academy of Music. She has previously been a music theory lecturer at the University of  Pennsylvania, Southern Methodist University, and Dallas College Richland Campus. 

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