No one sees us until we see ourselves, and we may need to face the shifts of the ocean and realize that in the midst of grueling moments, we ought to believe in our hearts unconditionally, first and foremost. Creative Soul, Sarah Bethany, is a starlight who didn’t let the ordeals she endured dictate her story. With her musical talents, she’s filling the world with a glorious symphony that caresses our souls with healing love and light.
Sarah Bethany is an artist and musician. She’s a prolific songwriter, producer, and composer, and her vocals are A-ve Ma-ri-a extraordinary. Though she can play any genre, her style is Jazz, Blues, and Soulful, with delicate lyrics that touch the heart as an ointment needed to soothe the pain. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she moved to St. Louis when she was 7 years old. She currently lives in Hawaii with her loving family, surrounded by nature’s benevolence.
In the early years of her life, Sarah Bethany watched her father devote time to learn to play the piano just as her curiosity began to grow. “It was an instantaneous magical connection…me and the piano,” she remembers becoming interested in this elegant instrument that produced such melancholic sounds.
A love story began between Sarah Bethany and the piano, learning all she could about music throughout her childhood. When the dark night of the soul downed on her teenage years, Sarah Bethany felt confused about her vision of music, focusing on school and trying to figure out what to do to survive in this fast-moving world where making money is a priority. She went off to ride new waves, attending the University of Kansas for Architectural Engineering, but after one semester, she realized that career was not her calling. Feeling even more lost and not knowing what to do, she quit school altogether and started working as a housekeeper at a nursing home.
Sarah Bethany was no longer holding the keyboards in her hands, instead, she was holding a toilet brush that kept her busy and nauseated. “I gotta figure things out soon because this ain’t it,” she pondered as she scrubbed and scrubbed, having a sudden awakening that motivated her to pursue her creative dreams once and for all.
As a love story that is meant to be, Sarah Bethany and the piano found their way back to each other at the nursing home. Just steps from her, a piano stood still awaiting revival. The sparks were ignited and she started playing piano for the people at the facility, and that’s all she needed to do to be reminded of what she is made of, music.
“Music is my place. This is who I am,” Sarah Bethany declared after experiencing the joy and gratitude from everyone at the nursing home. She promptly went to pursue a music career and started to prepare herself for the next steps to entering music school. She attended the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Music, focusing on piano performance and music composition, gaining a Bachelor of Arts in Music. Yet, she wasn’t aware of her superpower – her voice.
For some time, she lived in a cabin in a forest in Big Sur, California surrounded by redwood trees. It was there amongst the majestic trees that their energy activated her vocal cords, when she started to sing Amazing Graze, surprising herself with the beauty and high-vibration flow of her voice. Although she didn’t think of herself as a singer, she couldn’t deny the vitality of her vocals, and her relationship with music started to flourish more and more, even writing her own songs.
Sarah Bethany put a pause on her creative dreams to make some others come true, as a wife and a mother. Time went on and when her daughter was 5, Sarah Bethany got a divorce that catapulted her into poverty, living as a single parent through the roughest of circumstances.
“In unbelievable life situations, you need to express your emotions and sometimes the worst moments make you feel the most vulnerable and they open you up to honesty…” Sarah Bethany recalls living in little shacks with no plumbing system, using any natural resources she could find to help her and her daughter survive. It was then, she started writing music from the heart, actualizing the songwriter in her.
As her life continued to spiral, Sarah Bethany crashed hard at the bottom. “My soul needed for my life to fall apart to make me whole again,” she explains. Desolation and frustration are subtle descriptions of the painful memories from those days. Sarah Bethany is an admirable woman, whose determination and love for her daughter gave her the courage to face her ordeals and rise above the impossible.
It wasn’t long before she met an angel who changed her life, Michael Suprenant, a professional drummer, producer, and sound engineer, and her life partner. They started to make music together, manifesting their goals, and building their recording studio. Riding a new wave into the music world, they founded Mana Music & Media, a music production and boutique library.
Sarah Bethany started to gain trust in her talents becoming her authentic self. Her husband, Michael, helped broaden her horizons, introducing her to the music scene on the Big Island and getting her to play in various bands of all genres from Brazilian, and Reggae, to Jazz. She also became a member of the house band at Hawaii’s Songwriting Festival. Sarah Bethany was busy with music and her repertoire grew, but she couldn’t see what her partner saw in her, a raw diamond waiting to show its brilliance.
2020 pumped the breaks and all of her performances were canceled and she had nothing left but herself and the piano, giving her the chance to tune to the music she carries within. With a clear focus, Sarah Bethany started to write and record her own songs. In 2021, she started to release music and attended music conferences like Durango, putting herself out there little by little, getting positive feedback, not all there to launch herself as a solo artist, but her path was getting brighter, and bigger.
Sync Secrets with Ash opened the doors to a realm of music she was born to be a part of. Taking the workshop empowered her as a musician, giving her the tools to learn about the music business and how to monetize and earn an income with her songs. She polished herself and got ready to pitch her music, getting her first placements on TV shows such as “The Game” on Paramount and “Sacrifice” on BET+. Most recently, she got a placement on the ABC drama show, “The Company You Keep,” writing and recording the song for the opening scene.
Her love story with the piano has become a fairy tail for the books, and the anchor that kept her sinking was no longer a part of her story. Doors are now swinging open for Sarah Bethany, collaborating with other professionals she admires and releasing singles such as Speak Easy, Prayer Song, and O Holy Night, available to stream on all platforms.
Sarah Bethany went through passages that could’ve made her give up on life and turn her back on the possibilities that are found in between the layers of pain. Her Creative Soul flows through the vast waters of life, inspiring us to stay strong as we flow with the current of our journeys, ready to believe in every part of our being, because we are not just mere waves, we are the entire ocean.
