Keys to Life

Founder & Director

Sara Duncan

Sara Duncan is a well-rounded musician and something of a Renaissance woman: she is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, teacher, business owner, and mother. In addition to being a classically trained pianist, Sara plays the guitar, viola, drums, bass, and sings. She opened KTL in 2007.

Education

  • Completed UW Madison’s music program in two years (2002–2004). 

    • Focus on counterpoint, analysis, and music history.

    • Studied the piano privately with Professor Emeritus Bellamy Hamilton. 

  • Studied vocal technique in 2004 with Kitt Reuter Foss, a seasoned Broadway singer.

  • B.A. in Women’s Studies (2005) from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Music Skills & Experience

  • Perfect Pitch: Able to immediately and correctly identify the note of any sound using Do Solfege (Do Re Mi). This skill informs the Keys to Life pedagogy and curriculum.

  • Experienced in the Taubman Technique, an approach to retraining injured pianists, and in the Alexander Technique, a somatic discipline that helps students change their body use with their mind and attention.

  • Piano: Sara is classically trained on the piano and plays other styles as well. She performed Poulenc’s 2nd movement from his piano concerto when she was 17 and attended the Interlochen Arts Camp in 2000. 

  • Viola: In high school, she was a member of the Wisconsin State Youth Orchestra and in college she played in the Mendota Philharmonic.

  • Voice: Sara has sung in various choirs and jazz jams. She studied with noted Portland Jazz/Blues singer Karen Maria Capo in 2011 and continues to develop her voice with former Keys to Life teachers Bronwyn Jones and Ashley Tuhy.

  • Drums: Sara plays the drums at jams, with her students, and at KTL performances. In college she took formal drum kit lessons, performed in a samba carnival band, the Handphibians, and  learned traditional West African polyrhythm and played djembe and dununba for African dance classes.

  • Electric Bass: Sara started playing the electric bass in 2010 and enjoys playing with flat-wound strings on her Fender Jazz. 

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Teaching Experience

  • Sara has been teaching piano and guitar since 2001, voice lessons since 2007. 

  • Ran her own teaching studio in Madison as an undergraduate student and also taught music classes at her synagogue. She was the head song leader at Camp Shalom throughout university. 

  • Beginning in 2005, Sara taught guitar and piano lessons at an independent music studio in the Alameda area of Portland and also taught piano lessons and accompanied students at recitals for the Oregon Music Academy in Tigard. 

  • Currently spreading KTL’s comprehensive preschool music program, Seeds of Harmony, across Portland Metro with eyes on a national program.