Jazz Musician and Alumna Sarah Tandy Returns to NHEHS
On Friday we were delighted to welcome Sarah Tandy (Class of 2000) back to NHEHS, her first visit since leaving school.
Sarah shared her inspiring and honest career journey with our Sixth Form students. After leaving NHEHS, she studied at the Guildhall School of Music and was a finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2002. Despite this incredible success, the pressures of the classical music world led her to step away.
At 21, she began a new chapter at Cambridge University studying English. She soon found solace in playing jazz and this period away from London gave her the time and space to work out who she was as a musician and to rediscover her love of music. She would spend hours listening to, among others, Coltrane, Mccoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, Robert Glasper and Brad Mehldau.
Today, Sarah is a celebrated jazz musician, performing at iconic venues including Ronnie Scott’s. She is a member of the Ronnie Scotts House band and she has also toured around the world. In 2019 she was nominated for Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year Award. In 2020 she was awarded the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Instrumentalist.
Our students were fascinated to ask Sarah about her favourite venues to perform at, the jazz musicians she has most enjoyed working with as well as the music teachers who most inspired her.
We were also treated to a brilliant live performance from Sarah, even on our very out-of-tune drama studio piano (usually more of a prop than an instrument!), which she brought to life with her unmistakable jazz style, which you can see on our reel below.
Thank you Sarah for reminding us that success isn’t always a straight path and that sometimes the best journeys come from finding your own way.
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