Sydney Kovacs is a classically trained singer with a passion for jazz.

Sydney began singing at the age of five when she joined the Santa Barbara Young Singers Club. For nearly a decade, she participated in Young Singers Club solo classes and show choirs until she joined the Dos Pueblos High School Jazz Choir and Combo (DPJCC.) DPJCC cultivated her passion for jazz. A competitive choir, DPJCC performed annually at the Reno Jazz Festival, where Sydney was awarded “Outstanding Musicianship” for her solo in 2012. She began private instruction with Agatha Carubia in 2011 and continued through the remainder of high school.

Sydney earned her bachelor’s degrees in Neuroscience, Physiology & Behavior and Music Performance from the University of California, Davis, where she studied under Jonathan Nadel. During her studies, she was actively involved in the University Chorus, conducted by Jeffrey Thomas, and student-run, co-ed a cappella group, The Liquid Hotplates. Sydney played the role of Marcellina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in 2015 under the direction of Zoila Muñoz, and she played the role of Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in 2016 with the UC Davis Baroque Ensemble. Sydney gave two recitals at the ends of her junior and senior years at UC Davis. In 2016, she was awarded the Faculty Award for “Outstanding Accomplishment in Musical Performance.”

Sydney joined the chorus of Opera Santa Barbara (OSB) for their production of Jules Massenet’s Manon in November 2017. She returned to the OSB chorus for La Boheme and Eugene Onegin in the 2018-2019 season. Sydney was a member of the Santa Barbara Choral Society, a semi-professional group, for its 70th season in 2018. She was an active member of the Santa Barbara Jazz Collective from 2017 to 2019. Sydney began teaching private voice lessons in these years as well.

Like many musicians, Sydney shifted from live to virtual performances during the COVID-19 pandemic, streaming weekly concerts on Facebook. Sydney returned to live performances in 2022, appearing as a guest soloist with the Tacoma Pierce County Jazz Band (TPC Jazz). Sydney is also a frequent guest artist for the group Jazz Therapy, and she sings with her own jazz quartet in the Tacoma-Seattle area.

During her hiatus from live performances in the COVID-19 pandemic, Sydney earned an additional bachelor’s degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of Washington as well as a master’s degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences from the University of Arizona. She is a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist and aspires to specialize in voice and voice disorders. She has a particular interest in working with professional voice users, including singers, actors, teachers, attorneys, clergy, etc. Sydney started her private practice, Sing Speak Swallow, PLLC, in 2024.

For more information, visit the “testimonials” page.