Sarah McCallum

Sarah McCallum was born in Sydney, Australia in 1983 to New Zealand parents. Her father is a singer-songwriter, her mother, a music teacher, and her two older brothers have also pursued musical interests. The family returned to Auckland, New Zealand when Sarah was seven. At nine years of age she began playing the oboe, achieving ATCL in 2000. That year she was also one of ten students chosen to participate in the NZSO mentor scheme. Sarah enjoys learning and performing in a variety of musical styles including jazz, learning jazz piano and singing from Phil Broadhurst and Julie Mason.

In 1999, Sarah was a national finalist in the Smokefree Rockquest. She also won the Most Promising Woman Musician and Song Writing Awards at the regional finals. As a student at Westlake Girls' High School, Sarah has been a member, for four years, of the nationally and internationally recognized, Key Cygnetures choir and other school groups including the Westlake Symphony orchestra. In 1999 she gained 100% in School Certificate music. Sarah began classical singing lessons in 2000, gaining distinction in both grades six and seven in the same year. Also she won two awards for composition, the New Zealand Secondary Schools' Choral Composition Competition for, Poem From War and the K.B.B. instrumental composition competition in conjunction with 175 East for Those Bloody Basses. Sarah was also a member of the Tower New Zealand Youth Choir.

In 2011, Sarah put out an album under the alias, Miss Little, a project that explored a more popular sensibility.

Recently, Sarah has been releasing music under her married name, Sarah Belkner, with her deubt album, But You Are, But It Has coming out in 2017. Coming in at 9 tracks, the record has been described as a ‘dreamscape indie pop record that ferries catchy, emotional vocal hooks to a rich world of complex, subtle and layered arrangements.’ But You Are, But It Has was the follow up to Sarah’s Humans EP, which was released back in 2015.

The past few years have also seen Sarah touring and performing with artists including Sarah Blasko, OLYMPIA, Chet Faker, NGAIIRE, Lanie Lane and Alex Lloyd. She has also been in the producers seat for other artists including Jack Colwell, Rosie Catalano and Julia Johnson.