Meet our teaching team!

Learn how to play the music you love.

We offer passion-centered, student-centered private music lessons for singers, pianists, drummers and guitarists of all ages and levels of experience across many genres of music, including classical, jazz, R&B, pop, funk, blues, folk, new age, and rock music. As teachers and performers, we believe in an ethos of radical encouragement as a path to rapid and sustained musical growth.

Unfortunately, the way that music lessons are traditionally taught can suck all the life and creativity out of music—students are stuck learning an outdated curriculum that they may or may not be interested in learning, perfectionist and judgmental teaching methods cause students’ self-esteem to plummet, and popular songs have to be learned outside of the regular lesson time.

We believe in building skills and having fun.

We do things differently. We believe in building foundational skills, technique, and knowledge in a friendly, supportive environment, while having a great time—because fun and play are not distractions, but rather, fun and play enhance learning and focus. We also customize the curriculum so that it is designed around the music that you want to play.

For more information about our unique approach, see our Teaching Philosophy page.

Sarah Gettys

piano & voice teacher, studio founder

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Sarah Gettys (she/her) currently teaches private voice and piano lessons at her studio in Campbell, CA. She is an expert at inspiring her students, drawing out each person's intuitive musicality while offering feedback and suggestions that bring their musicianship to the next level.

Before moving back to the Bay Area in August 2014, she taught at the School for Music Vocations (Southwestern Community College) in Creston, Iowa. At the School for Music Vocations, she taught classical and jazz piano, ear training, and directed vocal groups. She also taught voice and piano lessons privately in Des Moines, Iowa. 

Prior to attending the School for Music Vocations in Iowa, Sarah attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, double majoring in Music and Literature. While she was a student at UCSC, she taught supplemental music theory classes at the university, accompanied student recitals, and was the piano accompanist at the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz. 

She brings with her a diverse range of teaching experiences, having taught privately, in studios, and at the community college and university levels. She enjoys teaching people of all ages, having taught students who are three years old to ninety-two years old.

Hannah Levy

voice & piano teacher

Hannah Levy (she/her) is honored to be a member of the teaching team at Sarah Gettys Music Studio! A true musical omnivore, she is guided by her curiosity about music as a way to deeper understand ourselves, each other, and our world. Her enthusiastic teaching style prioritizes the joy of singing alongside cultivation of sustainable vocal technique, knowledge of music theory and authentic creative expression.

Hannah has been singing since childhood and performing professionally in choirs, bands, and studios since 2013. Trained in jazz and marinated in funk, RnB and a range of traditional styles, she has a wide lens through which to understand the amazing capacity of the human voice. Through study and collaboration with singers across vast genres and geographies, she has developed a curious ear and a deep belief in the connective power of song. She is a graduate of the California Jazz Conservatory (Jazz Vocal Performance,  2019) and a former member of Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble (2016-2021). In addition to touring extensively with Northern Harmony (2013, 2016, 2020) and recorded with Bay Area legends including Dizzy Jenkins (FKA Art3mis Prime) and three-time Grammy-winner Fantastic Negrito, Hannah plays bass and sings in dream pop band Little Arcs and vocal group, Stone Fruit Trio. 

In teaching, Hannah aims to provide a safe and encouraging container within which the student’s own curiosity can lead the way to fruitful lifelong music-making. Referring to the principles of the LoVetri Method of Somatic Voicework™, she focuses on drawing out the unique voice of each student through breath and body awareness and the balancing of the vocal registers.

Thomas Gettys

drumset & piano teacher

Thomas Gettys (he/him) is a multi-instrumentalist, performer and teacher based in San Francisco, CA. Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Thomas spent his 20's playing, touring, and teaching. He studied both piano (with Lucas Mattson) and drums at The School for Music Vocations in Creston, IA. From there he went on to play with jazz ensembles of many sorts, to drum and sing in an indie folk band called The River Monks, and play timbale in a killin’ salsa group. This chapter of Thomas’s musical life also included the occasional country gig, and playing in the pit band for an odd assortment of musical theater productions including Urinetown! and West Side Story. 

Since moving to the Bay Area in 2014, Thomas has been an active member of San Francisco’s psych rock and pop scene. He’s appeared on drums and harmony vocals with such folks as Smokin’ Ziggurats, Luke Sweeney, and Sarah Gettys. From 2015-2017 he was Assistant Orchestra Teacher at San Francisco’s Waldorf School where he worked with the fourth through eighth grade orchestras and provided private lessons to their percussionists. The time Thomas spent with these students reinforced his commitment to the idea that students learn best when they are excited about what, and how, they are learning.

Thomas teaches like he plays - joyfully, supportively, and never sacrificing groove for flashiness. He focuses on mastery of the basics and establishing a foundational, ever-deepening connection to rhythm and time. For him, the piano provides a unique union of rhythmic and harmonic capacity - all of the groove and movement of the keys, hammers and strings, coupled with the full harmonic and tonal range of the instrument create a world of limitless expressive possibilities! Thomas connects with his students by drawing out their own curiosity and delight in music, encouraging them to explore what excites them, and reminding them that their own experience of the music is an important ingredient in the music itself.

mikki boyd

voice & piano teacher

Mikki Boyd (she/her) is a multi-instrumentalist, performer and teacher based in San Francisco, CA. Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Thomas spent his 20's playing, touring, and teaching. He studied both piano (with Lucas Mattson) and drums at The School for Music Vocations in Creston, IA. From there he went on to play with jazz ensembles of many sorts, to drum and sing in an indie folk band called The River Monks, and play timbale in a killin’ salsa group. This chapter of Thomas’s musical life also included the occasional country gig, and playing in the pit band for an odd assortment of musical theater productions including Urinetown! and West Side Story. 

dereck orellana

voice & piano teacher

Dereck Orellana (he/him) is a multi-instrumentalist, performer and teacher based in San Francisco, CA. Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Thomas spent his 20's playing, touring, and teaching. He studied both piano (with Lucas Mattson) and drums at The School for Music Vocations in Creston, IA. From there he went on to play with jazz ensembles of many sorts, to drum and sing in an indie folk band called The River Monks, and play timbale in a killin’ salsa group. This chapter of Thomas’s musical life also included the occasional country gig, and playing in the pit band for an odd assortment of musical theater productions including Urinetown! and West Side Story. 

rowan katz

voice & guitar teacher

Rowan Katz (she/they/he) is thrilled to be a new voice educator at Sarah Gettys Studio! A vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist hailing from Los Angeles originally, Rowan has lived in New York City and Washington State, and now resides in the bay area. Touted as a powerhouse vocalist and performer, Rowan believes in using singing, writing, and vocal/musical performance as a way to dismantle shame and foster expression and connection. A true lover of folk music from all over the world, Rowan also comes from an extensive background in jazz, gospel, classical, and pop performance, which they have studied and performed for 16 years. 

Rowan loves to work with students of all ages, and at all stages of vocal experience and engagement! They are especially nerdy about singing as a stress-relief/nervous system regulation tool, singing in community as a way of healing the world, and songwriting as a way of finding meaning and hope.

Rowan’s recent forays in the world of performance include "Songs of Truth: Holocaust Awareness Concert and Conversation" with the Golden Gate Symphony (Soloist), Free Key Choir (Soloist, Composer, Section Leader), HBO's "Scavengers Reign" (Vocalist), Noise Pop's "Summer of Music" Series (Featured Artist), and THEYFRIEND Performance Festival (Featured Artist).

susanna thomson

guitar, voice & songwriting teacher

Susanna Thomson (she/her) is a multi-instrumentalist, performer and teacher based in San Francisco, CA. Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Thomas spent his 20's playing, touring, and teaching. He studied both piano (with Lucas Mattson) and drums at The School for Music Vocations in Creston, IA. From there he went on to play with jazz ensembles of many sorts, to drum and sing in an indie folk band called The River Monks, and play timbale in a killin’ salsa group. This chapter of Thomas’s musical life also included the occasional country gig, and playing in the pit band for an odd assortment of musical theater productions including Urinetown! and West Side Story.