Interview | Saara Kaldma

Originally hailing from Estonia, Saara Kaldma is a vocalist and alumna of our BMus in Popular Music Performance course. 

Alongside working on her debut EP, Saara is currently navigating the UK's music scene as a lead singer with collectives such as the Down for the Count Orchestra, and providing backing vocals as part of duo SAGE for rising stars like Georgia Cécile and Lisa Canny. 

We caught up with Saara to learn more about her musical journey, how her studies helped equip her for the industry and future projects.

What first led you to ICMP? 

I started very early on with music as I've been singing since I was very little. My family is quite musical, one of my older sisters studied the violin. We went to a special music school where we could study music alongside taking traditional classes. I studied various instruments and sang choral music, it's a huge part of Estonian culture. 

I was talking to one of my friends about my career and she introduced me to a company who helped Estonian students find education abroad and I had this meeting where I ended up looking for a UK music university. 

There were different options, applied to multiple places and something just clicked with ICMP, I had this really positive feeling about it. 

How did you find London when you first arrived? 

I joined in 2019 and started my BA that September. I moved straight over and remember getting to Heathrow, looking at the tube plan and thinking I'm never going to understand this or navigate this city on my own! 

At the same time, once I found my place and had been here a few weeks, I remember feeling really comfortable in London and loved it. I still love being here now. 

How did you find your time at ICMP? 

I loved my time at ICMP, I lucked out with the group of friends who I made, we were all very like-minded and got on well. Covid made things weird but that also brought us and the tutors closer together, having to navigate this strange world. 

My first takeaway was that there was so much I didn't know, the music industry in Estonia is so very different and a lot smaller.

Also, nothing happens when you stay comfortable. 

I learned that the real magic with music happens when you're pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone - that was something I really took on board while I was studying." 

How did you orientate yourself in the industry after you finished your studies? 

I graduated in 2022 and started doing backing vocals for an artist as the drummer was on my course and they were looking for someone. I guess that was my first session work experience, and I got to play a few festivals. I was also lucky enough to come into contact with Lisa Canny, she was my Live Arrangement Tutor. After, she'd taught me, she asked me and my friend Gertrude if we'd do backing vocals for her. This led to a lot of live gigs and recording sessions too.  

Then, during my final year, I started teaching in music too. That's been me mostly teaching now and gigging wherever possible. 

What are you up to now? Are you still performing with Gertrude as one half of SAGE? 

Yes, this is thanks to Lisa. We started working together during our studies as fellow Estonians, we found each other and thankfully we both got along. We have a very similar background musically and work really well together, this was something Lisa picked up on. 

After a few gigs, we realised we needed a way of presenting ourselves. Because of our original music, we believed there was a space in the industry for us working together as a pair. It's been really effortless working together and bringing the good music vibes that we always try to bring. 

We've been working with a few different artists now, collaborating on arrangements and working with Georgia Cécile now, we're on tour with her EP, she's a Scottish jazz singer. 

What's next for you? 

More gigging and more writing, I'm aiming to get into the studio with my own music. I've started my Masters at ICMP, going deeper into the voice and I'm involved with Down for the Count, an orchestra and there's some future work coming up with them too. 

Lucinda was asked for recommendations for a project surrounding the history of electronic pop music - and it's a condensed orchestra, they were looking for two female leads. Now we're going on tour with them with shows coming up over the next few months. 

Have you any advice for anyone wanting to follow in your footsteps? 

One of the most important things is to avoid rushing your work.

It's important to remember that everyone is on a different journey, musically and personally, it's not worth comparing ourselves and our progress to other people."

Whether you believe it or not, from my experience, life has a way of knowing when I'm ready for something. A lot of the time I've felt like I haven't been ready but I've just had to do it. 

The other thing has been collaboration over competition. In the classical world, it's very competitive, and I found that tough in my first year. But collaboration will take you a long way. 

It's also important to dream bigger too because dreams can come true. I find that it's still good to have scary big dreams. 

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