Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Bonsignore. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I am currently having the time of my life co-producing a debut album with my “The Magnolia Janes” duo partner. “The Light Years” is due for release on July 12th and I am so excited to share these new, “heart” songs with the world. My friend and co-writer, Ashley Riley and I began writing a lot over zoom during the pandemic, and even though we have been “music” friends for many years, these meetings allowed us to continue creating music at a challenging time when our children were being “home-schooled” and we both felt pretty cut off from our dreams. The process eventually lead us to performing together a lot more, traveling to sync music events in New York and LA, and eventually creating our Americana pop duo (named after the Jane Magnolia trees that were blooming in my garden last spring).

There’s something magical that happens when you write with someone who has a completely different musical aesthetic and cultural background to you. And if you are open enough to relinquish a little control in a writing room, there is no telling where these new creative doors will take you. Ashley’s folk rock roots, and my classical piano and opera training allowed us to blend our styles seemlessly to create what we like to call Americana for optimists. We are excited to be working together on this full length album of songs that mean so much to both of us. Songs about home, family, love and loss, and most importantly, hope. We have been recording remotely in our home studios and getting together every month in Nashville or Illinois to write, perform, refine the songs, edit and mix, and our process seems to be working well for us. We are both busy working moms, but we try really hard to use our creative “work” time wisely. Those few days we get together are are always incredibly focused and productive, and we sure do laugh a whole lot. Ashley and I are possibly happiest writing sad songs, but we are hopeful that our first album strikes a balance between the joy and the tears, the light and the dark. We aren’t afraid to write about difficult human emotions and personal experiences, but we do prefer to present our songs in a rich tapestry of instrumental colors, layered vocal harmonies, and the occasional experimental synth and string arrangement. Although are never quite sure where our music will “fit”, we aren’t too concerned about it. The songs make us really happy, and we hope they will make others happy too.

Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a South African born American musician, artist, composer, producer and educator based in Nashville, TN. I currently write and produce music for TV and film, and I perform and record as a solo artist, as well as with my Americana pop duo “The Magnolia Janes”. I run a small business that I launched online in the summer of 2020 called SingPlayStudios. Here I teach piano, voice, songwriting and ear training courses, as well as songwriting and art camps to students of all ages. I recently started a children’s choir called “The Tennessee Wildberries” which has performed some of their original songs at local festivals and art crawls, and they have also recorded on projects with some amazing Nashville artists.

I Also teach 100 pre-k students once a week at a local nursery school, and for the last two years I have been inspired to write little songs for them. In January of 2024 I felt deeply compelled to turn their favorite songs into an album of gospel and inspirational songs called “Lalehoh”. I recorded fourteen songs, and almost 80 students to self-produce the album. “Lalehoh” was released on 4/4/24, the same day that two of my students (aged four and six) debuted at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville singing “One Small Voice”, a song off the album. It was a total surprise to me, and a moment I will never forget. The plan for the album is to raise awareness for organizations, charities and programs that are dear to my heart. We are starting with “Raise The Roof Academy”, an amazing Nashville run school program in Uganda. Their children’s choir will visit in the fall, and a combined concert will provide a special opportunity to bring all of our children together to sing for a better world.

I also love to write and publish repertoire and method books for my own students to use at our school, including a beginner piano book series called “Piano Time” (inspired by my mother’s request), and an ear training book called “Listen, Hear” book 1. I began composing and creating the books during the pandemic when I was missing my mother and wondering when I might see her in person again. I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands and I wanted to do something productive (rather that binging TV and crying into my coffee indefintely). It began with a classical piano piece I composed for my mother’s 70th birthday. A few days later I had composed more than twenty pieces, and so I decided to turn them into a repertoire book in her honor. The process of creating the first book was daunting and incredibly challenging, especially since I had zero knowledge about book editing and publishing. But I learned so much in the coming year, and this new medium of creativity felt like a way to draw close to my mother and to people all of the world. I loved getting to hold the books in my hands when they were done, and sharing them with my students and friends. I’m currently self-publishing my twelth book, and all of them are available on Amazon.

My hope during the pandemic was to give people all over the world a means to start being creative, and this also lead me to creating educational video courses for beginner piano and singing. Working on curriculum and course design, and making the videos gave me a reason to get out of my pajamas each day and “teach” an invisible audience about the basics of music. It felt worthwhile at a time when our lives seemed quite uncertain, and I learned so much about myself, and what I was still capable of learning. When I look back at that time now, I am happy to say that the pandemic turned out to be one of my most creative and productive seasons of my life. I decided early on to work on projects that took me outside of myself, ones that would hopefully help others in some way. I believe we all have an innate creative spark, and the means to make the world a more beautiful place through our “art”. Tragically, many of us seem to forget how to tap into our creative ability as we age, and our naturally playful spirits and imaginations become diluted and fearful. Perhaps this is why I adore working with young children. The unfiltered joy they experience through play, singing and improvization is something I wish everyone had access to. Creating something from nothing takes courage and perseverance, but our perfectionism and the fear of failure holds us back. Somewhere along the way, I decided that perfection is highly overrated, and that time is of the essence. My biggest problem these days is keeping up with my creative energy and output. Music enters my brain constantly, and as much as I love it, it can be hard to see projects to the finish line when new ones seem to sing themselves to me constantly.

I grew up in Durban, South Africa in an intensely musical family. My father is an excellent guitarist and singer, and my mother plays many instruments, directs choirs, teaches classroom music and sings beautifully. My sister, Annie is an incredible songwriter, producer and artist in Toronto. I began to play the piano at the age of five when my father showed me a C major triad and it blew my mind! I immediately started to pick out melodies and make up harmony parts every day after school, and when I accompanied the first grade Christmas concert by ear at age 7, my mother decided it was time to start formal piano lessons. Mrs Phyllis Hunt, a master piano teacher, was my first mentor and I studied with her for eight years. She was traditional and rigorous, and demanded serious daily practice. I did all of the Trinity College piano exams and won awards in many competitions and festivals every year. At age ten I began working at a local ballet school where I had to improvize music at the piano for hours each week, as well as sight read whatever was put in front of me. It was an effective way to learn how to compose music in real time, using the dancers movements and rhythm as an inspiration. It was also a means for me to escape my “real life”. My beloved older brother, Jonathan, had just died very suddenly from an asthma attack at our school’s athletic practice, and in a way my time in the studio allowed me to feel like I had some control over at least one aspect of my life . I played for that ballet school for eleven years, all the way though college, and the skills I gained at the little “job” my mother secured for me have proved invaluable.

I went to the University of Kwa Zulu Natal for my undergraduate degree in piano performance (minoring in voice) and there I had many wonderful opportunities to play as a soloist with national orchestras and opera houses. A highlight of my time at college was the invitation to perform for Nelson Mandela, a leader who has been an inspiration in my life. I have written many songs for Mandela over the years, as well as my other personal heroes.

My family became untethered once again when we lost my younger brother, Thomas, in a car accident at age sixteen. I was junior in college, and my home life seemed all the more difficult. I started to get the urge to escape the brokeness and dysfunction of my very traumatized family, and for me that meant getting as far away from home as I could. I moved to New York City the moment I graduated, and worked towards my masters degree in opera before taking on a job directing choirs and musical theater at a prestigious school called Hackley just outside Manhattan. I continued writing music (mostly sad songs of loss and heartache, and also many songs inspired by the let downs of the depressing dating scene in New York at the time). I also continued composing and arranging, and recorded an album of original songs called “New Sky, New Day” over a summer in Woodstock, NY.

This chapter of my life was was followed by another wonderful position at a top school in Manhattan, The Trinity School. Here I mostly directed choirs, chapel programs and musical theater, and I taught AP music theory. But it was when I began teaching songwriting that I found my truly happy place. I loved working with my high school students and helping them to find their musical voice, learning the fundamentals of marrying poignant lyrics with heartfelt melodies, and experimenting with chords and harmony outside of the traditional I, IV, V progressions. It was exhilirating and immensley rewarding to watch my students develop creatively, and to perform their beautiful songs for their peers. Trininty offered me an opportunity for professional development, and this is where my dreams took a new direction. I went to Nashville for an NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) workshop and it was there that I immediately fell in love with the city, the music scene, and the collaborative spirit that seems to be in the water. I remember coming home and telling my husband we were living in the wrong city. Steve’s eyes definitely rolled, but I think he was also intrigued by the idea of a warmer climate, affordable housing, and more space for our young children.

After two years of visiting Nashville every two months to write and perform, I quit my beloved teaching job, loaded up the grand piano and the kids, and we drove the to Nashville. Luckily my husband’s job had transferred him to my preferred city so it all worked out! I began to write and produce a lot more. I started to submit dozens of tracks to sync libraries, and almost two years later I received my first placement. A few of my romanitc piano instrumentals found there way into a wedding scene for a cable show, and it was wildy exciting to hear my music on TV. I’ve since had over fifty placements in TV, and my dream is to eventually score a movie, something akin to “Out of Africa” or “The Mission”. These are the scores that stir my soul, and the thought of composing music to elevate powerful and meaningful stories would certainly be a dream come true.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

It may seem simple and highly idealistic, but my goal has always been to make the world a better place through music. I don’t take myself very seriously at all, but I do take my job of writing and teaching music very seriously. I think the music we choose to create or listen to can do one of two things. It can de-sensitize us to some brutal messaging, or it can connect us to our shared humanity. Music is a like a time capsule for cultural moments, and it can hold the hopes and dreams of generations, and melodies have this uncanny ability of capturing our stories and our emotions and transporting us to another place. I have always prefered to put music into the world that has a message of hope. And I believe the songs we learn as children stay with us to the end, which is why I strive to create beautiful and hopeful melodies for my young students. As a teacher, I have noticed that people who learn how to play instruments, improvize in a group setting and/or co-write songs are able develop perseverance, and to better handle their emotions and go with the flow. For me, music was always sanctuary. I poured all of my emotions into my piano for years, and it became a sounding board for my heart. Music gave me the means to work through so many raw emotions, and to begin the process of healing. I could identify with the pain in the melodies of Chopin and Mozart, and I truly believe mastering those pieces and making them a part of my soul helped me to come to terms with my own pain. Music was the ultimate gift, and in this age of immediate gratification and technology, I hope to bring the simple gift of making music to everyone.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love that I can be by myself for hours upon hours and never feel lonely. Music is a constant companion, and when I am in that creative flow (which is more often than not) time ceases to exist. I love turning the music I hear in my head into something tangible within hours, be it creating tracks for libraries, songs for albums, or notating new sheet music for my piano students and teacher friends. I love that I am not bound by any rules, and I can wake up and work on whatever creative project inspires me in the moment. I have my school and studio with set afternoon hours, but because my job is highly creative, I have the freedom to come up with new class ideas every month. love hosting house concerts for local organziations and charities, and providing opportunities for my own students to perform in Nashville. I am also able to carve out time to perform and produce with my duo partner, which is way more fun than my former life as a solo concert pianist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://themagnoliajanes.com https://www.singplaystudios.com/
• Instagram: @sarahbonsignore @themagnoliajanes @singplaystudios
• Facebook: Sarah Bonsignore Hemstalk The Magnolia Janes
• Linkedin: sarah bonsignore
• Youtube: singplaystudios
• Other: Books available on Amazon Courses available on Udemy

Image Credits
Trish Kaberle – yellow skirt photo