About
A multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and virtuosic cellist, Sarah Joy’s music combines jazz, folk, and pop elements while firmly rooted in the classical music tradition. Having been classically trained on the cello and influenced by her professional orchestral experience, she is primarily known for restrained composition and arranging that accompanies an intimate vocal style.
A West Texas local, Sarah Joy grew up in a musical family. She began studying the cello at age 5 with her grandmother, an Eastman School of Music graduate, and her father, a Juilliard and Eastman School of Music graduate. Along with her classical studies, she learned to produce recordings. At age 16, she began attending Texas Tech University and graduated summa cum laude with a cello performance degree. After graduating, she recorded and uploaded covers, music tutorials, and originals to social media, consequently receiving mentions and features from online sites such as Buzzfeed, Classic FM, the Daily Dot, and Sir K.
“Much like fellow digital stars 2Cellos, Piano Guys, Kevin Olusola of Pentatonix, and That Viola Kid, Joy is evolving our idea of classical music.” – The Daily Dot
Her first collaborative EP, Sunfall, was released in 2017. In 2018, her recording of Saint-Saëns’ The Swan was featured by Halidon Music as the opening track to a compilation YouTube video which subsequently amassed over 72 million plays. She released a Christmas EP in 2020 and her first solo album, We Grow Up So Fast, in 2021, both on the Halidon Music record label.
Recently, she has embarked on a new project in the form of a YouTube video series simply entitled “Music Journal”. These experimental songs and pieces are accompanied by atmospheric visuals with no more than a week or two spent on a single video. In each project, she chooses a specific performance technique or aspect of music production, composition, or songwriting to explore and improve upon. This method of sharing fast-paced creativity allows her listeners an inside look at her musical journey and growth as an artist.
