new EP "loved for it" out 10.31
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new EP "loved for it" out 10.31 ~*~
Hi, I’m GUSSIE B, aka Sarah Devin Kaufman
I’m a songwriter, pianist, singer, lyricist, producer, and arranger. I also teach piano to all ages, at all levels. Scroll to learn more about my teaching philosophy, which is based in kindness, communication, and patience.
About Sarah Devin Kaufman
I’ve been playing classical piano ever since I can remember and singing since kindergarten. I believe in relying on emotional intelligence, open communication, and asking lots and lots (and lots) of questions to get to the root of what lights up every student. I went to grad school for journalism and spent over a decade as a breaking news reporter (most recently at NBC News), talking to people in every situation imaginable, so I’m particularly curious about how to best connect with all different kinds of personalities. Different people love to learn music differently.
At the moment, I teach in-person and virtual lessons exclusively through Lyon Music in Los Angeles, California. Lyon Music is a music school founded in 2019 by Lauren Malyon, a talented, ambitious musician and nurturing and thoughtful teacher. Largely through word of mouth, she’s grown her school in the last five years from just one teacher (herself!) to over 25 teachers and 300 students today. Contact me here for more information about my lessons!
About GUSSIE B
GUSSIE BERGER was one of the code names used by the 1930’s actor Greta Garbo to avoid the press when she would check into hotels. I’ve been inspired by Garbo since college, when I was sucked into the dichotomy of the actor’s concept of her own gender expression and the pressure on her to be Hollywood’s beautiful leading starlet. In 1947, five years after Garbo’s last film, Billy Wilder and Walter Reisch asked the actor what interested her by way of a potential Hollywood comeback. She answered:
“A clown, A male clown. Under the makeup and the silk pants, the clown is a woman. And all the admiring girls in the audience who write him letters are wondering why he does not respond. They cannot understand."
Every person has a distinct and layered concept of their own gender, and most of it doesn’t fit into the binary that white supremacist patriarchy tries to drill into us. GUSSIE’s music tries to convey the complex and epigenetic trauma that accompanies being a woman in 2020’s America. It also deals with a lot of the heartbreak and physiological harm that I and many of my colleagues have suffered from under the pressures and exploitations of our techno-feudalist pseudo-capitalist economy. I wrote a piece here about how music, particularly Charli XCX’s Brat, helped me heal from severe burnout.
Learn more about my upcoming EP, “loved for it.”