Sydney’s musical journey began when his mother noticed that he approached the piano differently from most children. Rather than simply experimenting with the keys, he always had a melody in mind. Recognizing his talent, his mother arranged weekly lessons with a church member.

Sydney’s first opportunity to perform came at age ten, when his aunt asked him to play at her wedding. He began serving as a church pianist while still in middle school, and as a teenager, he performed regularly at weddings, competed in local and national competitions and talent shows, and earned a Division I rating at the Texas state UIL piano solo competition for his performance of Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in G Minor.”

Although Sydney did not major in music at the University of Georgia, he remained deeply involved in performance. He served as a student director and accompanist for the university’s African American Choral Ensemble and performed with several bands and ensembles. With his cousins, Sydney co-founded Music Mentors of Texas, which provided free private lessons to promising young musicians whose families could not afford them.

His church-music ministry took him to congregations in Georgia, Washington, D.C., Nashville, Dallas, and Phoenix. He currently serves on the music staff at Historic Tanner Chapel AME Church in Downtown, Phoenix.