Sara Wilkinson

Without a doubt, currently Toronto-based Sara Wilkinson is an artist – dressed to the nines in vintage clothes, sipping herbal tea to keep her voice healthy while on tour.

A few hours earlier, she had walked into the venue, a hidden gem of Ottawa’s Chinatown, in a faux fur vest, leopard print socks and a wide-brimmed felt hat, carrying her guitar in its case. Though we had never met, I knew right way she was the performer, someone who would be taking the stage to tell stories through songs, all while being unapologetically herself.

“Every artist goes through those moments of doubt, but if you don’t believe in yourself, it’s not going to happen. Earlier this year, I realized that I was tired of doubting myself every day. No one can force you to sing. So now my best advice, as corny as it sounds, is to believe in yourself and do the work.”



Sara Wilkinson is likely the most spontaneous person I’ve ever met. After graduating from Musical Theatre School, she moved to New York City on a whim to work with a friend, writing children’s theatre and making ends meet by being a nanny for a couple in Manhattan.

“In New York, the caliber of the musicians is so good,” she gushes. “There’s so much opportunity…. I found that in Toronto and New York, you have to beg to perform, advocate for yourself, you have to prove that you’re a musician. Whereas when I was in Cuba, music is everywhere, and people want to share it. Cuba is so generous, music is part of their culture.”

Honestly, when music fans romanticize the “humble, travelling singer-songwriter,” they’re probably picturing the image of Sara Wilkinson. She also lived in France for two months, and Thailand for one month, and her stage banter tells stories of the time she traveled across Canada to go tree planting on a whim. Sara keeps in touch with friends over the years. Even if they can’t let her crash on their couch while touring, they would still love to see her play and catch up – and with a bubbly, friendly personality and easygoing nature, Sara makes for an ideal house guest.



A voracious reader, Sara Wilkinson’s favourite books are the Harry Potter series (she’s a Gryffindor, obviously) and stories from the Holocaust – as her family is Jewish, she views learning about her culture’s history is significant. However, one book that particularly stood out to her in recent reads was “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert. In it, the author describes inspiration “as ideas floating through you.” Sara latched onto that idea, as it so clearly put into words how she viewed her gift of songwriting. “Songs are just ideas floating around, waiting for you to pick them up. If you don’t pick them up, after a while, they float to someone else. I’m just the vessel.”

Sara Wilkinson is launching Wilkinson Wednesdays in early 2019. “I’m super excited about it! I’ll be focusing on building my fan base by releasing a new video, sometimes super produced and other times just a simple acoustic session, every Wednesday.”

Keep up with Sara Wilkinson’s adventures via… WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE | INSTAGRAM

Check out Sara Wilkinson’s latest album, Willingly !

Note from Sara: “It’s available on Spotify & iTunes for purchase.. but I would love to stress that if they would like to support the artist.. it is available for purchase through my website. There, the proceeds will go straight to the artist. Its so silly what a small amount the artist gets through Spotify and iTunes.. but it’s still great exposure!” - Clara Charron

Singer/Songwriter Sara Wilkinson and Leigh catch up in this recent interview from Critical Thinking. - Leigh Bursey

Toronto artist ‘speaks’ to Durham about her music
By Leslie Ishimwe - November 8, 2018

Sara Wilkinson performs in Bowmanville Friday evening.
Sara Wilkinson, a Toronto-based musician, will start off a tour in Bowmanville Friday, unveiling a project encouraging people to use their voices to communicate.

She says the idea to create what she calls the Speak project came from her song Speak which she wrote on the Toronto subway, thinking about how people don’t communicate with each other even though they’re standing or sitting closely together. She says she found it “strange” and decided to write a song about it.

The song led to her friend Fanette Rotatinti, filmmaker and songwriter, to conceive the idea of the Speak project. They’re currently collaborating on the project.

Wilkinson’s tour will start in Bowmanville on Nov. 9th at the Manantler Brewery, 182 Wellington St., at 7 p.m.

The 29-year-old, who was born in Toronto says she started writing music at the age of 14 as she was inspired by her parents who are both music teachers.

Wilkinson graduated from St. Lawrence College in Brockville, Ont., where she took music theatre.

“My music definitely has a theatre influence because I was trained classically and theatrically so transferring that into my own music and put it through the guitar, it became more of my own,” Wilkinson explains.

Wilkinson is an independent artist which she describes as both “exciting and a lot” to deal with.

She adds “being younger, you always have that dream of being signed (by a recording company) but it’s just different now and I had to kind of accept that.”

Wilkinson says she has taught music to children as a side job and gives private guitar lessons. She says she has another project she’s been on working for years called Kinder Musiq where she teaches moms and young kids about music.

The Toronto based-artist says she has performed around the country in locations such as Moncton, British Columbia and Toronto.

She has recorded four albums. Her latest, called “Willingly” is about moving on and she says she worked on it for three years.

“With this album, I wanted to make it sound professional and I think as an artist I’m impatient at times so I really took my time,” says Wilkinson, speaking about how Willingly is different than her other albums.

Wilkinson says she doesn’t limit herself to one specific genre of music and she’s open to try different styles but she’s originally a “soul-influenced” artist.

Her final message: “The point I want to get across is to not give up on yourself. I was really bullied in school and I started singing and thought ‘I think this is what I’m supposed to do’ and I hold on to that.” - Leslie Ishimwe

Live interview with Sara Wilkinson on Riot Radio - Leslie Ishimwe