Sarah Saulsbury

Music Director Sarah Saulsbury has been singing in various choirs since grammar school. Her mother and father were early members of the Occidental Community Choir in the late nineteen-seventies, and they brought their daughter into the fold at the age of thirteen. She has been singing with the OCC, on and off, for thirty years.

Having served as assistant director for three and one-half years under the tutelage of former OCC music director Daniel Canosa, while continuing to sing within the OCC soprano section, Ms. Saulsbury made the vertiginous leap from singer to full-time director when Mr. Canosa moved on to greener pastures in June of 2009.

Ms. Saulsbury studied music theory and composition at UC Santa Cruz. However, she counts her three former OCC directors — Allaudin Mathieu, Doug Bowes, and Daniel Canosa — as the source of her most meaningful musical instruction, as well as her abiding inspiration as a choral conductor.

In addition to directing the OCC, Ms. Saulsbury is the mother of two teenage sons and works at Hand Goods in Occidental part-time. She no longer pretends that she’s learning to play the accordion.