Dr. Sarah (Gilbert) Pickett

Dr. Sarah Gilbert Pickett, 36 and resident of Athens, passed away 24 January 2026, after a long illness that will not define her in our aching hearts. Sarah was a brilliant violinist and scholar, a PhD musicologist and educator at five colleges and universities, a skilled luthier, and an uncommonly kind and generous soul.

Sarah was born in Albuquerque, NM on 18 April 1989 to a large family of Gilberts and a few Glasses, the former having lived in New Mexico for generations and speaking Spanish: both families included grandfathers who worked at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. Sarah's parents, Ron and Kary, moved around a lot when she was a child: not long after sister Laura was born in 1992, they left Albuquerque for Denver when Sarah was 5, before stops at Las Vegas and Rapid City, SD where Sarah attended elementary school. At Rapid City, sister Laura remembered how Sarah spent most of her time with her childhood best friend, Stephanie. Intensely creative and exceptionally funny for her entire life, as a little girl she imagined games called things like Butt the Dreaded Angel and Bullies Out the Window, where the rules changed every time, but usually involved one pair of rollerblades shared between Sarah and Stephanie, and a little sister or two on a tricycle riding around in an unfinished basement. Sarah studied ballet at Rapid City: even as an adult she talked about the importance of that first day she went on pointe. And, it was in Rapid City that Sarah met a friend she would keep for the rest of her life: the violin.

The Gilberts moved to Allen, TX in 2001: Sarah attended Allen High School, and her star for music and academics quickly ascended. A National Honor Society inductee, Sarah also made All Region Orchestra every year of high school, and All State Orchestra (a huge achievement) in her senior year. Sarah was honored with her school's Virginia Smith Director Award, and was first violin with Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, taking momentous trips with GDYO to Europe and China. She was also selected to play before Joshua Bell at a Dallas concert. At Allen High School, Sarah met her best friend Laura Weihsmann: they bonded immediately over a shared love of black nail polish, choreographing dances to the Four Tops, and playing records by Opeth and the Pixies. During these years, Ron and Kary were inspired by their daughters (Laura also playing violin, and today a middle school orchestra director) to start a business for violin family instruments. Sarah fixed up and repaired literally thousands of violins, and rehaired thousands of bows, becoming an extremely competent luthier: she often said nonchalantly that it took her the first thousand bows to learn rehairing correctly. Not surprisingly, Sarah was accepted for university at NYU, Cornell, and Middlebury among others, choosing ultimately to go to Austin College on a music scholarship. Studying Psychology, she kept playing violin, made tons of friends, and also worked in the Art History library. 

Always curious, Sarah couldn't stay away from school: after debating between med school and luthiery, in 2011 she began study for her Masters of Music and PhD in Musicology at Florida State University, with the renowned Douglas Seaton. At Tallahassee, Sarah had a massive and international community of friends and musicians, playing in an Early Music ensemble, teaching, and keeping a luthier workshop at FSU, as the manager of their string instrument collection. Her dissertation considered the history of American violin making. Sarah earned her PhD in 2021.

In 2017 Sarah met Jordan Pickett, a fresh PhD and archaeologist of the Roman and Byzantine Mediterranean, who had moved to Tallahassee for work as a postdoc at FSU: they were smitten with one another, Sarah telling her friend Christy after a few months that "I'm going to marry this guy." During their whirlwind romance, Sarah taught Jordan to love swimming in the ocean at St George Island, and with alligators at Wakulla Springs. She once rescued him from a hammerhead shark. Sarah dazzled Jordan with her vivaciousness, taking him on his first trip to New Orleans, where she knew all the underground jazz clubs, and the best places to eat (dozens and dozens of) oysters. In 2018, Jordan received a job offer from the Department of Classics at University of Georgia, and asked her to marry him and move to Athens together. Together they planned and executed their own wedding flawlessly. 

While in Athens, Sarah taught more than a thousand students at Georgia Gwinnett College and the University of Georgia on music history, music appreciation, and the cognition of music. Consistently generous of intellect and spirit, Sarah was masterful in the classroom, and her students adored her: any educator reading this will know how unusual it is that in fact one cohort of students pitched in together to buy her a theremin, whose performance she delighted in demonstrating. Sarah made a massive impact on students. Sarah was surrounded by music and loving friends in Athens: of especial note are Addie Hill, and Lisa and Ivan Strunin. Always adventurous, Sarah and Jordan loved traveling together during these years, taking trips to Italy, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey, besides throughout the United States. In 2025, Sarah also went with friends to Japan. 

On the Thursday before Sarah passed, she was playing viol de gamba with a new Renaissance music group at UGA: one student remembered that her last words to him that night were "You are starting something that is about to bloom beautifully." Though she left us far too soon, Sarah's extraordinary impact on so many people across the country planted seeds, that certainly will bloom beautifully. 

Sarah's life will be celebrated on Friday 30 January with three events: visitation 10-11am immediately before service and cremation at Evans Funeral Home in Jefferson, GA; an event at UGA's Hodgson School of Music for students at 4pm; and an open house for family and friends (and music!) that evening. Concerts in Sarah's honor are being planned by her students and colleagues, for future dates. 

Sarah is survived by her husband, Jordan Pickett of Athens, GA; parents Kary and Ron Gilbert of Allen, TX; sister Laura Gilbert and her husband Chris Heinlen, with niece Eloise, of Dallas, TX; grandparents Rose and James Gilbert of Windsor, CO; in-laws Jane and Mark Williams of San Antonio, TX; aunt Dr. Leslie Glass of Albuquerque, NM; Shannon Glass-Smythe and Michael Levine of Boston, MA; uncle Dr. James Gilbert Jr. (and wife Elubia) of Rapid City, SD; aunt Michelle Gilbert-Arnold (husband Rick Arnold) of Windsor, CO; aunt Jeanne Schweiger (husband Tim Schweiger) of Temecula, CA; uncle Vince Gilbert of Rapid City, SD; and numerous Gilbert cousins.

Evans Funeral Home, Inc., 1350 Winder Highway, Jefferson, Georgia.  706-367-5467       

Online condolences at www.evansfuneralhomeinc.com

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