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Articles
- The Collegian - April 19th, 2004
- The Scranton Times-Tribune - June 5th, 2004
Live Recordings
- A Little More Crazy - June 11th, 2004 at the Scranton Cultural Center
- Live Again - June 11th, 2004 at the Scranton Cultural Center
- Outta Here - June 11th, 2004 at the Scranton Cultural Center
- So Nice - June 11th, 2004 at the Scranton Cultural Center
Interviews
- WVIA Interview with Erica Funke
from The Collegian (Penn State University student newspaper), April 19th, 2004
Sophomore reaches for dream by releasing her debut album
By Jason Cox
Collegian Staff Writer
There are some people out there lucky enough to have always known what they want to do with their
lives. Penn Stater Sarah Holgate (sophomore-piano performance and music education) is one of those
people.
"I always had the secret dream of being a pop diva," she said. "I've been singing basically
all my life. As soon as I could make noises, I was singing. I was the type who would sing into her hair
brush."
Last month, Holgate, a trained classical and jazz pianist, took the first step in attaining her aspirations by
releasing her debut album, Welcoming the Night.
"It isn't about being a pop diva anymore," she said. "I just really love writing music and performing
it. My real goal is just to write and perform all my life. I'd be perfectly content with something
small and local."
Holgate's long-time friend Kristen Yarmey (junior-chemistry) said as long as she's known her, Holgate has been
passionate about everything she does.
"She's talented in so many dimensions, from piano to vocals to composition," Yarmey said. "She's put her
entire heart into every single song."
Holgate started playing the piano at age 7 by learning "Mack the Knife." However, she didn't merge her vocal
skills with her talent on the piano until high school. Through the years, she has looked to artists such
as Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell and Diana Krall as role models and inspirations.
"Harry Connick Jr. has been a big role model for me," she said. "I'd always belt out his tunes. He kind
of helped me break through my shyness. I was kind of shy about singing in public, but something about those
sounds made me get over it."
Night was produced by Holgate's childhood friend, Carl Shinko, on the newly formed, Kingston-based label Longfooter
Productions.
Shinko said it's only a matter of time before Holgate "is going to carve a niche for herself" in the
music industry.
"Sarah kind of gets categorized with people like Sarah McLachlan and Norah Jones, which is fine for now,"
Shinko said. "But five years from now, she'll be a flavor all unto her own. People will be comparing
songwriters to her, rather than the other way around."
Holgate said her songwriting is a mix of catharsis and pointing out general themes she holds important in
life.
"Writing a lot of the songs was a way of getting my emotions out," she said. "I started writing more
light-hearted ones and loved it. I wrote almost every song on the album over the course of a month."
The album title is plucked from a song of the same name. Holgate said she chose the name as a homage to her
favorite time of day.
"I've always really enjoyed the nighttime, when you can just think and reflect about the day," she said. "A
lot of the songs [on the album] are sad, but 'Welcoming the Night' is really just a tribute to the nighttime."
Tragedy struck Holgate's life in January when her brother was killed in a snowboarding accident. She was in
the middle of putting the finishing touches on her album. Instead of delaying production, Holgate, along with
the help of her two sisters, wrote a song in her brother's memory in a matter of days and was able to place it at
the end of the album.
Looking to the future, Holgate plans to tour the Northeast this summer and work on a new album. She hopes to
one day be able to blur the lines between popular and genre-specific music.
"Everyone needs to be more open minded," she said. "The general public is too focused on what's popular, but
jazz and classical musicians need to be open minded about what's popular, too. There's a place for every
kind of music."
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from The Scranton Times-Tribune, June 5th, 2004
Spreading the Joy
Local singer-songwriter-pianist to perform in support of debut album
Friday at Scranton Cultural Center
By Josh McAuliffe
Staff Writer
For Sarah Holgate, becoming a musical triple threat was a gradual process. First, she found she had an inborn
knack for the piano.
From there, she discovered her smoky, soulful voice didn't have to be confined to the privacy of her bedroom, and
that the innermost thoughts she put to paper need not end up in the bottom of a wastebasket.
All three skills will be on prominent display Friday night at the Scranton Cultural Center's Shopland Hall, where
the 21-year-old singer-songwriter-pianist will perform selections from her debut album of jazz-inflected
self-penned songs, "Welcoming The Night."
Purchase of one copy of the 13-track CD will get you two tickets to the "private" 8 p.m. performance. For
more information, call 287-7393 or visit sarahholgate.com.
Those who know Ms. Holgate wouldn't be surprised that she's gotten to this point. For her, the music's in the
genes.
She grew up in Benton Township, in a household full of musicians. Among her earliest memories is dad Cliff,
sitting around playing guitar.
When she was 7, dad sat her down in front of a piano.
Before long, she was banging out "Mack the Knife,"
having picked it up completely by ear.
"I don't know- it just fit with me," she said.
From there, she began taking lessons with renowned local piano teacher Ray Cramer. According to him, the
relationship didn't really heat up until a couple of years in, when one day, teacher had student play a piece by
the Spanish composer Granados.
"It was the first time I heard beauty in her playing," Mr. Cramer said. "Then we started to do all sorts of
things."
"She really is extraordinary."
Singing's something Ms. Holgate has enjoyed since she was a tyke, although it took her a while to get up the nerve
to do it in public.
"I was shy about singing. I'd do it in my room, because I didn't want anyone to hear me," she said. "'The
Little Mermaid.' I sang all the songs from that. I made up silly little songs."
Believe it or not, it was jazz crooner Harry Connick Jr. who helped her get over her bashfulness. The
singer's smooth, low-key delivery made her realize that to be a singer she didn't need the world class pipes of a
Celine Dion or Mariah Carey, the vocal dynamos who simultaneously inspired and discouraged her as a child.
It was also around this time that she started writing. Of course, more often than not the results of her
labors ended up in the garbage.
"Sometimes I'm a little overly critical of myself," she said.
One eventually saw the light of day - the aptly titled "The Creative Me Nobody Knows," a piece written for NEIU's
Arts Alive program when she was 14.
"That was a very important moment," she said. "It was such an amazing feeling. It was really neat
hearing something I performed. I realized then that music was it for me."
Ms. Holgate's prodigious piano skills got her into the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.
However, aside from a first-rate education in jazz and classical music, Eastman and Ms. Holgate were not a good
match.
The campus was too small for her liking. The students, too serious and single-minded of focus. The
hours behind the piano, never-ending.
"I'm glad I spent a year there, because of how much I learned. But, if I'm not enjoying it, I'd rather not be
doing it at all," she said. "It made me realize why I started doing music - because I love it, not because I
wanted to impress people."
Returning home, Ms. Holgate found herself with an abundance of free time - time that could be spent writing. In
a burst of creative energy, she wrote the bulk of her album's material in a one-month period during the winter of
2003.
Her songs - most of which could be described as semi-autobiographical confessionals - eventually hit the ears of
childhood friend and fellow musician Carl Shinko.
"I went to see her play at Winston's Pub (in Waverly, where Ms. Holgate has regular gigs), and I thought, `Wow,
when did she learn how to sing?'" Mr. Shinko said.
Mr. Shinko was so impressed with Ms. Holgate's voice and songwriting skills that he decided to form his own record
company, the Kingston-based Longfooter Productions, around her.
"Carl really helped my confidence," she said.
The recording process started in September and lasted into early winter. It was tedious, to say the
least. They had to search far and wide for the perfect piano, eventually finding it at Bloomsburg
University. The vocal parts, meanwhile, were recorded "all over the place," she said.
If anything, the album has proven to be a good distraction for Ms. Holgate. Back in January, her brother,
David, died during a snowboarding accident at Elk Mountain. In his honor, she wrote "Heaven Holds You,"
the CD's final track.
"It helped," she said. "(David's death) made me realize even more how important family is."
One thousand copies of "Welcoming The Night" have been pressed. So far, about 300 copies have been sold,
good enough to recoup the initial $5,000 investment, Mr. Shinko said.
In addition, the album has found its way to the airwaves. WVIA-FM disc jockey George Graham recently played
a few tracks on his "Mixed Bag" program.
Ms. Holgate has a lot on her plate at the moment. She's teaching piano, with a current roster of six
students. And she's back at school, having transferred to Penn State University. One semester in, the
music education and performance major has a 3.75 GPA.
Eventually, she'd like to send her stuff to major record labels. For now, though, she'll continue developing
her sound. No need to rush things.
"Where I want to go with my music career is still forming," she said. "It's still all very new to me."
Which isn't to say Ms. Holgate doesn't have big plans, because she does. Her "perfect life," as she puts it,
would be to regularly put out albums and perform her songs around the country, where at each stop she would hold
music workshops for aspiring kid musicians.
"I consider myself really, really lucky. Because I feel so lucky, I think I should give back," she said.
"What I think I should be doing - and this sounds corny, but I believe it - is to spread the joy of music."
Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.com.
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