about sarah

Sarah Gettys is a Bay Area singer-songwriter, vocalist, and pianist whose work blends classical piano training, jazz harmony, and the direct storytelling of folk and indie rock. Vocalist Theo Bleckmann has described her sound as “sophisticated folk with a hook.”

Her songs are written from a queer perspective and challenge rigid gender and relationship binaries, creating space for listeners who don’t fit neatly inside socially recognized categories. Influences include Joni Mitchell, Laura Marling, Phoebe Bridgers, Laurie Anderson, Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner, Fred Hersch, and Gian Slater.

A native of Northern California, she grew up in a small town in Mendocino County and began studying classical piano at age four. Her love of music and words led her to double major in Music (Classical Piano) and English Language Literature at UC Santa Cruz. She went on to study jazz singing and harmony at the School for Music Vocations in Creston, Iowa, and continued her vocal training through Somatic Voicework with the LoVetri Institute. In 2021, she completed a Master of Divinity at Pacific School of Religion, where she received the Michael Mendiola Ethics Prize and the Dean’s Award. In 2019, she was selected to give a California Jazz Conservatory Rising Star Concert.

Sarah is currently writing, rehearsing, and recording a new song cycle with Bay Area jazz musicians, including longtime collaborator and bassist Peter Barshay.

Her teachers and mentors include Billy Gollner, Victoria Theodore, Dr. Nicholas Roth, Theo Bleckmann, Laurie Antonioli, Dar Williams, and Peter Barshay.