Sarah Uyar is a Connecticut-based jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator. She currently lives in Hartford where she recently graduated from the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the Hartt School of Music. Sarah has been playing the trumpet for eleven years and her journey into jazz trumpet began in her junior year of high school when she stumbled upon the Artists Collective, Inc. in Hartford, CT, founded by the great saxophonist Jackie McLean. Beginning her studies under the tutelage of renowned saxophonist Rene McLean in the Youth Jazz Orchestra summer program, she remained there for two summers before enrolling in the Jackie Mclean Institute of Jazz for her collegiate studies.

Sarah has been fortunate to study and share the stage with masters of the music in and out of  her undergraduate studies. At the Hartt School, Sarah was under the instruction of distinguished jazz educators such as trumpeter David Smith, trombonist Steve Davis, bassist Nat Reeves, pianist Zaccai Curtis, and saxophonists Rene McLean, Michael Thomas, and Javon Jackson. As part of the 2023 Woman in Jazz Organization mentorship program, she was a mentee to trumpeter Bria Skonberg, from whom she learned much about succeeding as a woman in the jazz industry. Sarah has also been privileged to study under the mentorship of the great trumpeter Jeremy Pelt in his private studio.

Sarah started gigging as a professional in her junior year of her undergraduate degree, playing at venues in Connecticut such as Black Eyed Sally’s, The Side Door, Cafe Nine, Jazzy’s Cabaret, the Bushnell, and many others as a bandleader and side-woman. She has had the extreme privilege of sharing the stage with jazz masters Yoron Israel, Avery Sharpe, and Charles Tolliver with a Boston-based ensemble called The Makanda Project. Sarah also had the opportunity to open for the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival in the summer of 2023 as part of the Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency.

Currently, Sarah is one of the most sought-after trumpet players in the Connecticut jazz scene. Her current project, Iris, is a chordless quartet that includes four of Connecticut’s most talented young jazz musicians. The band features post-bop, avant-garde, and modern jazz as its main vehicle for expression.