Sasha Berliner

Sasha Berliner (born June 20, 1998) is an American vibraphonist and composer.

Early life

Berliner was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Bay Area, where she began playing drums at age 8. In her earlier years, Berliner was more focused on rock and indie music, and she participated in the San Francisco Rock Project (formerly the San Francisco School of Rock) along with her entire family: her father, John Berliner, is a bassist her mother, Sheri Evans, was the school office manager; and Berliner and her brother, Cole, played in the school's House Band for a number of years. As a teenager, she continued working in a number of genres as a singer and multi-instrumentalist, and in 2013 arranged a version of Beck's "Please Leave a Light On When You Go" from Song Reader for the San Francisco Rock Project; she also ran a fashion blog, in part inspired by her mother's work running a boutique in San Francisco.

In 2017, she attended the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, then led by composers Vijay Iyer and Tyshawn Sorey; Sorey invited Berliner to join his newest sextet the following year.

Berliner says the higher-than-usual number of women musicians at Banff and the women faculty's increased transparency about harassment inspired her to speak out about gender-based mistreatment. The letter began spreading rapidly just a few weeks before the #MeToo hashtag went viral, leading to heightened media attention to issues of workplace harassment and assault.

Then a 19-year-old college sophomore, Berliner was invited to perform as "one of the youngest bandleaders" at the 2018 NYC Winter Jazzfest, and in the following months, her letter received wide coverage in publications including The New York Times Hot House Jazz Magazine, and PBS NewsHour. SFJAZZ Magazine named her one of "10 Rising Women Instrumentalists You Should Know",

In January 2019, she was announced as the LetterOne "Rising Stars" Jazz Award's North American recipient for 2018; the prize was a seven-city tour of North America, including dates at jazz festivals in Canada and the United States. Later in 2019, she signed as an artist with Vater Percussion and Marimba One and released her first full-length record, Azalea. Christian McBride, as well as solo and in her own groups. She was named in DownBeats Critics Poll in 2020 (as "Rising Star" vibraphonist) and 2022, and the DownBeat Readers Poll for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

She released her second full-length, Onyx, in 2022 with J.M.I. Recordings.

Discography

As leader