Rebecca Sager

Rebecca Sager has been active as an independent research scholar and university professor in ethnomusicology for more than twenty years. As a multi-instrumentalist, she has played some 28 instruments (three professionally) and has sung and danced in various music traditions, such as Andean, Afro-Caribbean, Black gospel, Western art music and Middle Eastern. She's lived abroad in Haiti, Rome, Istanbul, Poland, US Virgin Islands and visited many more countries.

Sager earned a Bachelor of Music in music performance, piano, from University of the Pacific in 1990, then master’s and doctoral degrees in ethnomusicology from University of Texas, Austin, where she completed ethnographic research in Black gospel and Haitian vodou singing. 

In 2023 Sager moved to Calistoga, California, and taught TK–3rd grade general music. She has also taught piano privately and in classes over the past thirty years. Her current passion project, “Music Can Save Us,” applies the power of music to benefit climate action efforts and collective well-being. She is a candidate for School Board in Calistoga, running to advocate for music education.