Sarah Jaysmith

Composer / arranger / pianist - Dublin, Ireland

Sarah Jaysmith is an Irish composer, arranger and pianist. You can see Sarah's catalogue and order music here, or read on to find out more about her. If you would like to commission Sarah to compose or arrange something for your ensemble, please get in touch!

Sarah has been composing since she was a teenager. She took composition as her major option during her Bachelor of Music Education, studying with Dr. Joseph Groocock. Her degree was jointly run by Trinity College, Dublin and the Dublin College of Music.

Singing in many choirs has given Sarah a particular love of choral music, and she has composed and arranged many choral pieces. Sarah's other love is musical theatre, and she has composed and arranged over sixty songs.

Sarah is an accomplished pianist, an excellent accompanist, and has taught piano and singing for many years. This has informed her works for solo piano, including Ontogenesis and Ghostlight, and her educational music. She is also a keen recorder player and has arranged music for recorder ensemble.

Sarah’s music has been published by Pavane Publishing (US), Cypress Choral Publishing (Canadian). Much of her music is available on SheetMusicPlus.com, Musicnotes.com, and JWPepper.com. She has been commissioned by Elektra Women’s Choir (Canada) and Bella Voce Women’s Choir and the Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble, both in the US.

Sarah spent many years in the UK and Canada, but is now back living in Ireland with her husband, her son, and her two house rabbits.

You can see Sarah's catalogue and order music here. If you would like to commission Sarah to compose or arrange something for your ensemble, please get in touch!


Experience

Composer / Arranger / Accompanist / Music Director / Piano & Singing Teacher

Self-Employed

  • Delivered award-winning music direction for shows ranging from 4 to 40 people
  • Highly respected audition pianist for companies including Disney and TUTS
  • Coached professional and amateur singers
  • Published and commissioned composer of choral music
2007-present

Accompanist

Irish Institute of Music and Song, Balbriggan

  • Accompanist for various choirs
  • Accompanist for recitals and exams
2023-present

Piano teacher / information officer

Irish Institute of Music and Song, Balbriggan

  • Taught piano to students of all levels and ages, specialising in advanced students
  • Updated website and intranet
  • Created advanced spreadsheets to meet operational needs
2022-2023

Data Encoder (remote worker)

Hofmeister XIX Project, Royal Holloway University of London

  • Contributed to metadata standards of the project
  • Edited XML files to bring them in line with database standards
2003-2007

Intranet Technical Developer / Information Officer

Environment Agency, Bristol, UK

  • Created and maintained intranet CMS for 10,000 staff (ASP, SQL Server, IIS, Javascript)
  • Technical lead for team of six people
1999-2003

Graduate Trainee Library Assistant

Dundalk Institute of Technology, Dundalk, Ireland

  • Provided technical support to students and staff (MS Office)
  • Catalogued and ordered material, staffed the issue desk, and dealt with client queries
1997-1998

Education

BCIT

Associate Certificate in Applied Software Development (with distinction)
Fall 2020 - Spring 2022

Lynda.com and Udemy.com

HTML5, Javascript, jQuery, T-SQL, CSS, Python

Self-directed training

 

Summer 2020

University College, Dublin, Ireland

Master of Library and Information Studies

Thesis: "The implications of XML for electronic journals."

 

1997-1998

Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Bachelor of Music Education

Honours degree, major option: composition

1991-1995

Skills

Music
  • Accomplished pianist
  • Excellent accompanist
  • Fluent sightreader
  • Vocal coach
  • Keen recorder player
  • Choral arranger
Programming Languages & Tools
  • Python
  • Java
  • SQL
  • HTML5
  • CSS3
  • Javascript / jQuery

Interests

I like to do jigsaw puzzles - I find that is it quite similar to programming! My family also keeps me very active - we love swimming and board games.