Ms. Bachleitner was awarded her first commission at the age of 16, to compose an Operetta for the Metropolitan Opera Guild which was broadcasted on PBS with an exclusive interview. She spent several years as a recording artist for Radio City Music Hall and has continued to record for many artists and albums. At age 20, she received a grant from Bernie Sanders Arts Council to found a music program for under-served youth. Ms. Bachleitner was the director of the Jazz Program at the Manhattan School of Music Prep Division in 1993 where she directed and conducted the Jazz Orchestra and taught Music Theory and Jazz Piano until 1996. In 1985 she founded the committee for the Discover Jazz Festival in Burlington, Vermont, which continues to this day as an annual, international cultural event.
Sarina Bachleitner has been a professional jazz pianist and educator for over three decades. She is the founding director of the Jazz Apprenticeship Program which ran its 17th season at Jazz at Lincoln Center Educational Facility in New York City. Mentors of her program include notable artists such as Slide Hampton, Hugh Fraser, Rodney Jones, Rufus Reid, Cecil McBee, Chris Parker, Garry Dial and Rich Derosa to name a few.
As a performer she is the musical director for several bands including the successful Motown Revue band; SHAKETOWN. Ms. Bachleitner served as the studio contractor and pianist for the 2006 film "Gray Matters" starring Sissy Spacek and Molly Sheehan. Her original composition "Paradigm" was broadcasted on jazz radio WBGO and she was recently commissioned to arrange a big band composition for the King of Thailand which was recorded by the renowned University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band. Ms. Bachleitner is a graduate of the grammy-nominated jazz studies program at the University of North Texas where she was invited to serve as teaching fellow in Jazz Composition where she was the recipient of the 2017 Music Entrepreneurship Award for innovative music programming.
Throughout her career, Ms. Bachleitner has shared the stage with musicians such as Quincy Jones, Clark Terry, Rich DeRosa, Tom Jones, Hugh Fraser, Pat LaBarbara, Mo Holmes & the Pioneers, the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Stan Rubin Big Band. Ms. Bachleitner has performed both in New York City and abroad and continues to promote the idiom of jazz through various educational institutions. Ms. Bachleitner currently holds the position of the Band Director at Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich, CT where she continues her advocacy for education and performance.
