Sarah Joanne Davis, Soprano
Sarah Davis, Soprano Opera Singer
Sarah Joanne Davis, Soprano - Biography
Hailed by the New York Times as "a voice with considerable warmth," and the Boston Globe as “elusive, delicate, silvery and persuasive," lyric-soprano, Sarah Davis has been recognized as a gifted performer both on the recital and operatic stage. She has had success singing Mozart, new music and her first love, art song. Ms. Davis debuted with the Cleveland Orchestra last year, singing under the baton of composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher and premiered Elliott Carter's song cycle for soprano and chamber orchestra, "What are years" at the Tanglewood Music Center, under the baton of Oliver Knussen. Review She also appeared with the Albany Symphony singing in Mendelssohn's Midsummer Nights Dream, the Berkshire Lyric Theater in Orff's Carmina Burana, Vaughan Williams' Dona nobis pacem with the North Valley Chorale (Phoenix, AZ) and various song recitals in the Philadelphia area.
Opera credits include: Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) with Chesapeake Chamber Opera, Gilda (Rigoletto) and Pamina (Magic Flute) with Center City Opera Theater, Anne Trulove (Rake’s Progress) and Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos) with the Chautauqua Institution, Cendrillon (Massenet’s Cinderella) and Nannetta (Falstaff) with Peabody Opera Theater. She made her professional recital debut with the “Trinity at One Concert Series” in New York City singing song cycles by Jake Heggie and Libby Larsen, appeared in the Joy in Singing series at the Lincoln Center Library and premiered John Harbison's grand aria for soprano and piano, Vocalism, at SongFest in Malibu, CA. Last summer she was an Artist in Residence at the Cleveland Art Song Festival working with Stephanie Blythe and Martin Katz. Ms.Davis also spent two months in residence as a Vocal Fellow with the Tanglewood Music Center (Repertoire included; Mahler, Canteloube, Mozart, Schumann, Carter and Eric Nathan).
This Fall, Ms. Davis' performances include her debut with Opera Lancaster singing the role of Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas with Poor Richard's Opera, soloist in Vivaldi's Gloria at the Kimmel Center with Vox Renaissance and her debut with the Annapolis Opera singing an evening of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor (Verdi, Vaughan-Williams and Nicolai).
REVIEW for Vox Renaissance Ensemble: December 2010
"Among the soloists, soprano Sarah Davis' singing stood out for its creaminess of tone, purity of pitch, elegance of phrasing and potency of textural delineation." - Chesnut Hill Local by MIchael Caruso
REVIEWS for Elliott Carter's What are years Song Cycle for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra
Performed August 16, 2010 at Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music:
"Soprano Sarah Joanne Davis was skillful, forceful, yet sensitive to her well-enunciated texts, and her voice was perfect for the piece. I wanted to hear it again right away." Mary Wallace Davidson - The Boston Musical Intelligencer
"Elliott Carter sat quietly in his seat about seven rows back in Seiji Ozawa Hall the other night listening to an elegant young woman, Sarah Joanne Davis, sing his 2009 composition "What Are Years, 5 poems of Marianne Moore". This was the most miraculous confluence of all — the superb young voice expertly negotiating the angular and somehow natural settings which had come out of Mr. Carter's centenarian head. Art knows no age. Age is no limit to it. With just a piece of paper and some marks on it, the old speak to the young, and the young sing back." Keith Kibler - A Singer's Notes 22
"Davis sang with perfect diction and a hint of sensuality, almost as if it was a hit aria, not something that required rigorous advanced study." Joseph Dalton - Classical Region Arts