Sara Milonovich is an award-winning songwriter and fiddler from the Mohawk Valley who performs nationally and internationally with her alt-country band, Sara Milonovich & Daisycutter. A 2023 winner of the Bluebird Golden Pick Contest (Bluebird Cafe/Taylor Guitars), and the 2022 Americana Artist of the Year (Capital District Thomas Edison Music Awards), Sara is also a seasoned side musician who has worked with such artists as Pete Seeger, Richard Shindell, and Eliza Gilkyson, participated in a 2011 U.S. State Department/Jazz at Lincoln Center-sponsored “Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad” tour through Kosovo, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Turkey, and was a featured player in the Broadway musical Come From Away.
Sara grew up on her family’s farm in the Mohawk Valley, just west of Albany, NY where the Mohawk River meets the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. Her grandparents gave her her first fiddle at the age of four, and in addition to taking classical violin lessons, she began learning the traditional fiddle tunes of the region from older generations of musicians who passed them down directly at parties, jam sessions, and through accompanying square dances. These tunes were not only fun to play, but they served a purpose: often to provide music for dancing, or to comfort or entertain. This led her to a study of how folk songs evolved in a similar way, which she developed into a distinctive songwriting voice of her own.
Songs can be used to express personal stories, to document events that affected a place or group of people, to share history and preserve traditions, or simply to create a sense of connection and bring people together over shared stories. As a songwriter, Sara focuses on the role of “place” in telling stories through song.
In the classroom she focuses on making songwriting accessible to anyone while sharing the personal connection: that any story is worth a song! She also teaches New York State fiddling and traditional music through workshops, residencies, and lessons.
To Contact Sara:
email her at smilonovich@gmail.com
For my information, visit her website at https://saramilonovich.com