Sarah Caldwell was a notable American opera conductor, impresario, and opera company director. She also directed one non-musical production, the 1981 Lincoln Center staging of Shakespeare's Macbeth, presented on cable TV in 1982. It starred Philip Anglim and Maureen Anderman, with a then-unknown Kelsey Grammer in the supporting role of Ross, the soldier who informs Macbeth that he has been made Thane of Cawdor.

Caldwell was born in Maryville, Missouri, and grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She was a child prodigy and was giving public performances on the violin by the time she was 10 years old. She graduated from Fayetteville High School at the age of fourteen.