A native Oregonian, Jackson-Holman was born in Portland and shortly thereafter moved to Bend where she spent her formative years. The now classically trained pianist first began playing around the age of 3, likely tinkering on a small, toy piano not unlike the one we procured for her to play in the outdoor sculpture mall of the Portland Art Museum.
Jackson-Holman braved one of the coldest days of this early winter to perform an acoustic version of "Let Me In," a waltz-inspired track from her debut album When You Dream, which was released last year. The album is perhaps best known for its single "Into the Blue," which was featured on the ABC drama Castle's season 3 finale. Since then, Jackson-Holman's songs have also been featured on a selection of television programs on MTV.
Although Jackson-Holman had taken a little time off from her music career, she returned to writing and performing after "Into the the Blue" was picked up by ABC. She is inspired by the idea of blending genres of music, such as pop and classical, and experimenting with new ways of arranging the different sounds.
"The break was about just kind of figuring out my music and how to perform it, I guess," says Jackson-Holman. "I just had to take time to figure out what that looked like — it's different than playing classical music."
You can expect to see a lot more from Sara Jackson-Holman in the coming months as she heads into the studio in December to begin work on her follow-up album which is slated to be released in the spring.