Sarah Gross Profile
On a day off from a school choir trip to Rome, Italy this past July, Sarah Gross’s chaperone gave her simple instructions: “Go get lost.” Walking around cobblestone streets and past quaint buildings, as Gross got lost she found inspiration in the city. So, she recorded her memories in the most natural way she knew, through song.
A month later in August, freshman Sarah Gross found herself lost in Syracuse, New York. The song from her choir trip was still unfinished, but once she embraced the idea of getting lost, she found inspiration to finish the song, and a new home for the next four years. “Villas of Rome” now has over 1,000 listens on Spotify and is Gross’ favorite song that she has written.
Syracuse University freshman Sarah Gross is not only finding herself as an artist, but also as a 19 year-old sound recording and technology major with a self-diagnosed procrastination problem. Through the ups and downs of college, Gross keeps herself sane by writing, producing, and performing songs.
Gross wrote her first song, “Burn You Down,” as an “anxty” 8th grader. Laughing, Gross describes the song as “mean” and slightly “emo,” but says that she still has fun performing it at her gigs. Since then, Gross has written 15-20 solid songs, and many more just for fun. Gross views songwriting as therapeutic, and uses her songs open up to people.
“It’s [songwriting] definitely a courageous thing for me because I’m a pretty private person when it comes to my emotions,” she said. “But I guess with music, it’s just kind of all out there.”
From singing in the church choir, to performing in musicals, music has always been a force in Gross’ life. She fell in love with music listening to her mom play the flute at their local church in Gross’ hometown, Mastic Beach, New York. Taking after her mom, she started playing the flute at eight years old. A few years later, 10 year-old Sarah was inspired by the music of Sara Bareilles and taught herself how to play the piano. Once she discovered Taylor Swift, she learned to play guitar at 12. After she started writing her own songs, Gross taught herself how to produce music through apps on her phone.
At SU, Gross is involved in any kind of music-related activity. She’s a member of First Year Players, Main Squeeze a capella group, the University Singers Choir, and the Audio Engineering Society. Gross also threw together a couple of friends and formed her own band which performs at local Syracuse locations like Funk ‘N Waffles.
As for the future, she doesn’t have it all figured out yet. She says she might go to graduate school, or maybe she’ll move to Nashville. Whatever it is, Gross says that music production, songwriting, and performing will always be a part of her life simply because she loves it.
“I think that there’s something really fun about working on something that means a lot to you and that says a lot about your personality and sharing it with people and having people reciprocate that back,” Gross said. “Like, when people are like, ‘Wow, I just went through a rough breakup and I heard your song and it really helped me, I really loved that song,’ It means a lot to me.”