about

SARAH ROSSY'S VOICE IS COLOURFULLY CHAMELEONIC YET VULNERABLY HUMAN.

Performer, composer, producer, and educator Sarah Rossy (she/they) is a Lebanese-Canadian multidisciplinary artist based in Tio'tia:ke/Montréal. Sarah combines influences of jazz, live-processed electronics, and visual projections into autobiographical, ethereal, and socially-outspoken soundscapes for a truly unique result. Having performed hundreds of live shows of original music in under a decade and being the first Canadian finalist of the Ella Fitzgerald International Voice Competition, Sarah Rossy is an ever-expanding curious artist.

From 2013-17, Sarah led the chamber-pop group Shyre, playing 300+ live shows of original music on tours across Quebec and Eastern Canada. In 2017, Sarah's practice expanded to include interdisciplinary movement and visual projections. Mentorship with Meredith Monk, voice and movement research in Berlin, explorations of ethnic heritage at the Arabic Music Retreat, and multiple residencies at Banff Centre were all formative experiences which enticed discipline hybridization.

In 2019, Sarah joined Diasporakidz Interdisciplinary Collective and began an ancestral research journey with Diane Roberts' Arrivals Legacy Project. This meaningful work is now an active part of Sarah's creative process, inspiring WOVEN (2021), Sawtak Hamal Sawti (2023), and WASH (2024).

Recent residencies include: LEÑA Residency (Galiano Island, BC), Playwrights Workshop Montreal, and Banff Centre for the Arts. Recent workshops and studies include: Voice as Practice with Meredith Monk, pursuing voice/movement research at The World is Sound (Berlin), composing for the Montreal Contemporary Music Lab, and explorations of ethnic heritage at the Arabic Music Retreat.

Sarah's long list of recording collaborations includes: Patrick Watson, Thanya Iyer, NO COSMOS, Rae Spoon, Rafael Zaldivar, Aaron Dolman, Jack Broza, Hannah Marks, John Hollenbeck, and many more. In 2021, Sarah was appointed Artistic Director of Chœur Maha, a feminist community choir, and accepted a position as a Professor of Music at Dawson College. The interdisciplinary nature of Sarah's artistic practice now includes education as a tool for social justice, empowerment, and transformation.

Sarah holds both a B.Mus and M.Mus from McGill University, where she was mentored by composers John Hollenbeck and Christine Jensen. Sarah's research has been graciously supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the SOCAN Foundation.

Active projects include: GEORGE, an experimental jazz band led by drummer/composer John Hollenbeck; Indra's Net, an interdisciplinary work by Meredith Monk in New York City; as well as Sarah's self-led band and solo works. Recent original music releases include "Seemingly Insatiable Waves" EP (2024), "Tragic Masochist" EP (2024), and "The Conclusion" (2018). A much-anticipated debut album is set to be unveiled in 2025.

Compositionally, Sarah explores experiential processes which traverse through a feminist lens and nurture the ecosystems of artistic community, unifying her passions for social justice, representation, and unity. Sarah Rossy's work is a unique and compelling representation of art, culture, and the human experience.

In the meantime, check out bandcamp.

acknowledgement

I acknowledge that the majority of my artistic pursuits on Turtle Island (North America) are situated on the traditional territory of Indigenous nations, specifically, the Kanienkehá:ka Nations, in Tiotia:ke (Montreal). I acknowledge and thank the diverse Indigenous people whose footsteps have marked this territory on which peoples of the world now gather, create, and live. I acknowledge the histories of slavery, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and people of African decent; whose creativity, ingenuity and ancestral knowledge was responsible for the birth of jazz. I pay my respects to this body of practice in which I now share. I commit to amplifying, celebrating, and uplifting voices of marginalized race, gender, ability, class, and other historically oppressed identities in my creative pursuits. I dedicate my career to fighting against systemic oppression through education and action.