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Sarah McKenzie
Get tickets for her October 20, 2024 concert at the Guild Theatre:
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In 2011 she won a spot as a backing vocalist on Michael Buble’s tour. She cut her first recording entitled “Don’t Tempt Me”, and it earned her an opening slot for Chris Botti’s tour that year.
In 2012, her second album, “Close Your Eyes”, led to universal acclaim and spread her reputation beyond Australia’s shores. It won the Best Jazz Album “ARIA” award (Australia’s equivalent to the Grammy) and earned her support slots on the tours of Enrico Rava and John Patitucci. She won a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where she studied with pianist Joanne Brackeen and earned an Artist’s Diploma in Jazz Performance. While at Berklee she had the opportunity to perform her own work at Boston Symphony Hall, Umbria Jazz’s Winter and Summer festivals (Italy), Jazz Ahead in Bremen (Germany), the Monterey Jazz Festival (USA) and several smaller festivals in Italy.
Upon graduating from Berklee, Sarah remained in the United States and settled in Los Angeles. Her third album, “We Could Be Lovers”‘, was released in Australia in late 2014, and her growing profile on North American stages led to its worldwide release on Impulse! in August 2015.
In early 2016 Universal Music Publishing in France signed her as composer with an exclusive 5 year contract, and she relocated to Paris. In January 2017 Impulse! released McKenzie’s follow up album “Paris in the Rain”, which she toured over the next two years around the world, performing at hundreds of festivals.
In 2018 the Diablo Regional Arts Association in Walnut Creek, CA commissioned McKenzie to compose and perform a full concert length program titled “San Francisco – Paris of the West” which tells the story of the Verdier family and their influence on San Francisco over the centuries, and it was recorded. By then Sarah had relocated to London, and in March of that year she released her next album, “Secrets of My Heart”. Once again she toured the world until the coronavirus pandemic outbreak stopped all touring in March 2020.
The DRAA in Walnut Creek gave Sarah another commission entitled “Music Connects Our World”, a video extravaganza of 60 minutes length, filmed remotely, in which she collaborates with other artists from around the world and performs songs together with them. Those videos have been viewed by over 7 million people worldwide.
One of the first of those videos followed time spent in Brazil where she was a featured act at the grand opening of the new Blue Note club in Rio de Janeiro and was embraced by the local Bossa Nova community. Sarah and new friends Jacques Morelenbaum, the original cellist in Tom Jobim’s band, and Romero Lubambo, for some years the guitarist of Astrud Gilberto, recorded a version of “Corcovado”, which became an internet hit. The three of them recorded an entire Brazilian themed album, “Without You”, which was released in late October 2023, and it also featured Peter Erskine on drums, Rogerio Boccato on percussion, and Bob Sheppard on sax. The album received great critical acclaim all across the world. One more time Sarah McKenzie toured the world.
Listen to some of her music.
On October 20, 2024, our audience will be privileged to attend the concert by the Sarah McKenzie Quartet at the Guild Theatre during her current tour.