Oakland-based trumpeter, singer, and composer Sarah Wilson has emerged as "one of the most intriguing and promising composers and trumpeters on the contemporary music scene" (Derk Richardson, San Francisco Chronicle). While deeply shaped by jazz, Wilson’s music stylistically owes as much to avant pop, Afro-Latin grooves and indie rock as the post-bop continuum.
Wilson’s artistic work reflects a dynamic interplay of theater, jazz, dance, and film, which frame her unique, fresh compositional style. Sarah Wilson’s 2021 album Kaleidoscope (Brass Tonic Records) reflects that unique chemistry inspired by some of the key musicians in her creative life. She’s joined by a nonpareil cast of improvisers, including pianist Myra Melford, drummer Matt Wilson, violinist Charles Burnham, bassist Jerome Harris, and guitarist John Schott.
Wilson's original work has earned numerous prestigious commissions from venerable foundations such as the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Center for Cultural Innovation, SF Arts Commission, Fleishhacker Foundation, Zellerbach Foundation, East Bay Community Foundation, New Music USA, and de Young Museum Cultural Encounters Initiative in collaboration with Intersection for the Arts.
Her music is fueled by large-scale community-based arts projects including a 2021 music production, Tenderloin Voices in collaboration with the Tenderloin Museum and Larkin Street Youth Services working with formerly homeless youth. She was also a 2011-2012 Artist Fellow at the de Young Museum with funding from The James Irvine Foundation and created Off the Walls, a music and aerial dance production in collaboration with LA-based dance company, Catch Me Bird.
