Renaissance Woman. Rebel. Musician. Yogi. Hakomi Therapist. Lover of Life.
Sarah Calvert (also known as "Zarah") has worn many hats in her lifetime: world travelling award-winning singer-songwriter, sacred mantra musician, assistant musical theatre director (for David Hein and Irene Sankoff, creators of Tony Award-winning Come From Away), high school English Literature and Drama teacher, freelance journalist, Extreme Freestyle Skiing competitor, ski instructor, avid sailing racer, outdoor wilderness guide, women's ceremony facilitator, Kundalini Yoga teacher, Hakomi therapist and light-worker. Whatever it is she is doing, and creating, it always comes from the heart.
Always a musician and performer, she started classical piano lessons at the age of seven, and violin at the age of ten. In high-school she was part of an international award-winning concert choir, where she cultivated her love of singing and harmonies. She studied guitar in her early 20s, originally as an après-ski hobby in Whistler BC while teaching skiing. After teaching high-school English for a decade, she had spiritual awakening with the death of her mother, and realized that she had to return to her true bliss: music. She quit teaching and went back to study jazz piano and vocals at Selkirk College in Nelson BC, the Canadian satellite school for acclaimed Berklee School of Music in Boston. A multi-instrumentalist, she has recorded and produced several albums. Her first, Love and Light is a collection of Kundalini Yoga mantras with acoustic stylings, composed in New Mexico during a yoga teacher- training. She co-produced this with esteemed Toronto sound engineer David Mohachi (Sarah Harmer, Tragically Hip). Her recent mantra album Santiago Sadhana is the manifestation of a long journey, recorded in LA with the esteemed Grammy-nominated Krishan Khalsa and in Canada with Emmy and Juno-nominated producer and DJ Adham Shaikh. Composed while walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2014, the music reflects a sense of contemplation and movement with its elements of Latin grooves and electronica. Her other two singer-songwriter albums (Other Side, in 2010 and Masala: Memories and Melodies, in 2012) consist of original heartfelt songs of living and loss, joy and longing. Masala features a book of memoir that accompanies the album, with the stories behind the songs, gathered over many years of travelling, studying and experiencing life. Both albums feature prominent Toronto musicians like Tim Bovaconti (Ron Sexsmith, Burton Cummings), Andrew Collins (Andrew Collins Trio) and Russ Boswell (Corey Hart, David Wilcox, Holly Cole). She recently spent six months in Tulum, Mexico where she performed regularly with a trio, and as part of the Boom Orchestra, a 12-piece improvisational band that uses sign language to communicate.
Always a seeker, her love and reverence of the outdoors and Pachamama (Mother Earth) was sparked as a child in Ontario attending summer camp on beautiful Beausoleil Island in Ontario Canada. Since then, she has continued honouring the earth and cultivating a connection with Spirit through her travels and exploration of the world. She began meditating in her late teens and practicing Hatha and Ashtanga yoga in her early 20s. It was then that Kundalini Yoga found her and changed the course of her spiritual path. She travelled to New Mexico, in 2007 where she obtained her Level One Kundalini Yoga teaching certification. Since then, she's taken several Level 2 courses, and continues to study. She lived and taught Kundalini Yoga in India, where she studied Ayurvedic principles, Buddhist practices, and advanced pranayama. While living in Toronto, she fell in love with the 5Rhythms dance practice, and since then has incorporated elements of this, and ecstatic dance into her personal practice and teachings. Seven years ago, after much seeking and searching, she finally met her teacher, Gangaji, who taught her the basic yet profound practice of self-inquiry as a way to inner peace and freedom.
Always a teacher, Sarah has spent the last decade teaching, guiding women's retreats and facilitating various ceremonies in India, Australia, Hawaii and the South/Central Americas. Sarah's intention is to help people re-align with their true selves, using the medicines of the natural world, music and movement, meditation, Kundalini Yoga, sacred ritual, and creating safe and nurturing spaces. Trading the security of pensions and benefits for passion and an unmarked road continues to bring her joy. Now based in the small fishing village of lo de Marcos Mexico, she continues to create community through music and movement.
