Sara Leib

One of the most inventive young vocalists around, Sara Leib is the singer you wish you'd heard of first and told your friends about. At the age of 29, jazz vocalist Sara Leib has sung and taught nationally and on 5 continents, proving herself an integral key to the modern jazz scene. She has performed with acclaimed young artists like Taylor Eigsti and Hiromi Euhara, and such seasoned musicians as Art Lande and Paul McCandless. Known for her endearingly thoughtful stage presence, harmonic approach to scatting, passionate teaching style, and enthusiastic warmth, Sara's organic approach to music adds her own modern arrangements to jazz, bringing old songs new life.

Leib has performed at the International Association of Jazz Educators Conference and at major jazz clubs across the United States, including Catalina's and the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, Ryles and the Regattabar in Boston, Dazzle in Denver, and Cornelia Street Cafe in New York. She has toured South Africa, performing and teaching a master class for the Standard Bank Jazz Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa. In 2009, Leib traveled the world, giving concerts and workshops in Guatemala City, Guatemala, Auckland, New Zealand, Kathmandu, Nepal (Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory), Chiang Mai, Thailand, Beijing, China, and Athens, Greece. In 2009, Leib received a Masters degree in jazz performance from the University of Southern California, where she studied voice with Tierney Sutton and worked as a teaching assistant, teaching private lessons as well as assistant directing the jazz choir there and giving workshops on vocal improvisation.

Sara grew up in a musical family in Los Angeles, CA. Her father, a furniture-designer, and mother, a social worker, would often write lyrical parodies to existing songs for family gatherings, usually to roast the honoree. As children and teenagers, Sara and her brother (often to their chagrin) sang alto and tenor, respectively, and hoped the jokes went over well. Leib loved music from an early age, and her mother swears she carried a tune by the age of two. After taking lessons on the piano and saxophone, Sara taught herself a few chords on guitar and dreamed of being a pop star. It wasn't until attending Hamilton Music Academy for high school that she discovered jazz while singing in a jazz choir, and became entranced by the game of improvisation.

While in high school, Leib was accepted as a participant in the 1999 GRAMMY High School Jazz Ensembles, where she performed at various GRAMMY functions, and won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. In 2001, Leib continued her studies with Dominque Eade on a scholarship at the New England Conservatory. In 2002, Leib performed with renowned saxophonist Dave Liebman, and won the Downbeat Student Music Award for Outstanding Performance by a College Jazz Vocalist, her second honor in the acclaimed publication.

Sara currently lives in Los Angeles where she sings, teaches, and writes. As a studio and session singer Sara has sung for the WB, Hum Music, the N Network, the NBA, and on the Academy Awards. Sara subscribes to the idea that a musician should strive to be an artist, teacher and a scholar, and she attempts to learn something new every day. She has given master classes in jazz vocal improvisation internationally, twice served as a panelist for the NARAS Foundation's Grammy In The Schools, and can currently be heard as the voice of an airing Coffeemate commercial. She is currently on faculty at the Los Angeles Music Academy. A self-confessed music nerd and an avid foodie, in her spare time Sara enjoys food, wine, travel, and collecting tribal art. Sara particularly adores Thai food, Boggle, and modern architecture, and has a really cool collection of ethnic masks from around the world.