Sarah Swersey > >

She has enlivened the great concert halls of Europe and America, performing as featured orchestra soloist. She also has set aside the sheet music and experimented with spontaneous inspiration in improvisational ensembles. She has even used her tranquil sound to enhance the relaxation of playrooms full of toddlers and studios full of yoga students. Sarah Swersey has taken her flute playing many places.

She takes her music in a deeply inward journey on Nightingale, her enchanting collection of improvised lullabies. Sarah’s solo flute cuts straight to the heart, transporting the listener to a place of emotion and stillness.

It’s no wonder that Sarah and her flute can produce so much sweet sound, considering their long and dedicated history together. A native of the New York area, Sarah began playing at age 9, and right from the beginning, when she wasn’t at school she was spending much of her time with the flute. By high school, she was traveling to Manhattan on weekend mornings to study at The Juilliard School. And a big and important chunk of each summer was spent at Kinhaven Music School, a camp in Vermont that played a significant role in Sarah's development as a musician.

Sarah went on to Oberlin Conservatory, where her teacher was the esteemed Robert Willoughby, then earned a master’s degree at Yale University School of Music, where she was privileged to study with Thomas Nyfenger. After graduate school, Sarah landed the prestigious position of co-principal flute with the American Soviet Youth Orchestra. After an extensive tour of the Soviet Union, Europe and the United States, Sarah received a call from the Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, and within two weeks she was in the Canary Islands. Sarah spent seven years as principal flutist with the Spanish orchestra, performing all over Europe with the group and as a guest soloist.

In 1997, Sarah returned to the United States. But at the same time as she was moving closer to home, she was broadening her horizons. Within a couple of months, she was at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, the holistic learning center in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, becoming trained and accredited as a Kripalu yoga teacher. Since then, Sarah has taught yoga, privately and in yoga centers, in New York, Boston, and her current hometown, Northampton, Massachusetts. She also has taken her yoga teaching to the world she knows best – music – developing a yoga-for-musicians workshop she calls The Flexible Flutist. Sarah has led the workshop in conservatories and other music venues around the eastern United States.

Sarah’s classical music career has not taken a back seat. Since her return home from Spain, she has performed at the Lincoln Center Festival, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the Tanglewood Music Festival. But even her musical horizons have taken on a different hue. In 1999, she was invited to a gathering of Music for People, an organization founded by cellist David Darling to foster improvisational and collaborative creativity. Sarah and her flute were a hit with the Music for People folks, and Music for People was a big hit with Sarah. She could leave the sheet music at home and create from within, spontaneously. It was a freeing experience, leading Sarah to become an accredited Music for People facilitator. She offers her improvisation workshop, No Wrong Notes at conservatories and music camps.

Sarah’s musical connection with David Darling also has proved magical. David, a 2002 Grammy Award nominee, has invited her to perform in concert with him, and to play on several of his recent CDs. He also encouraged her to record a CD, to do it on solo flute, to take the sound as deep as it can go. This was the seed from which Nightingale sprouted.

Speaking of seeds sprouting, shortly after Sarah recorded her lullabies, she found a good use for them: She became a mother. She now has two children, Aaron and Rebecca, and Nightingale has put both of them to sleep each and every night of their young lives. They sleep well.

bio