BIOGRAPHY
Mezzo-soprano Sarah Beaty has been hailed as “the model of bel canto clarity and brilliance” (Cleveland Classical). Her versatile voice showcases a wide range of repertoire, with a specialty in contemporary opera. Sarah is “mesmerizing” and “sings with a purity of sound that filled the room with an array of colors” (Cleveland Classical). Her “warm musicality” and “vitality” (The New Yorker) captivates audiences across the country in her adventurous performances. She blends exemplary classical technique with cutting edge music, and is sought after for her fearlessness in experimental new music performances.
In 2023, Sarah made her role debut as Presendia in Nico Muhly’s haunting opera Dark Sisters with Orpheus PDX. She also premiered Star Choir, an interstellar chamber opera, with The Industry performed inside LA’s historic Mount Wilson Observatory.
Upcoming performances in 2024 include a role debut as Hansel in Eugene Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel. Sarah will be returning to Portland Baroque Orchestra as the alto soloist in Haydn’s Theresienmesse conducted by Gabriel Crouch.
2022 began with Sarah making her Eugene Opera debut as Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte, then she transitioned back into her famed avant-garde style with a performance of Louis Andriessen’s De Staat with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by John Adams. In March 2022 she stepped in last minute for a successful performance of Bach cantatas with Portland Baroque Orchestra, with only 2 hours notice. She was invited back to Eugene, OR, as a soloist with the Eugene Symphony in Manuel de Falla’s El sombrero de tres picos. In 2021, she made her Long Beach Opera debut as Agathe/Dargelos in Philip Glass' Les Enfants Terribles, directed by James Darrah. In 2020 she was a soloist in Hindemith's Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen with the LA Philharmonic under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen. Maestro Salonen subsequently invited her to sing Ligeti’s Aventures and Nouvelle Aventures with the San Francisco Symphony, but the performance was canceled due to COVID.
A favorite at the LA Phil, Sarah sang in their landmark new production of Meredith Monk’s Atlas and John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2, both directed by the innovative Yuval Sharon. Meredith Monk praised Sarah as “a beautiful singer and brilliant musician. I was very impressed with the clarity, immediacy, and honesty of her presence.”
She has worked with legendary conductors Gustavo Dudamel, James Conlon, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams, Nicholas McGegan, and Bramwell Tovey on stages including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall (now David Geffen Hall), the Hollywood Bowl, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Symphony Space NYC, and The National Opera Center.
Sarah is an inaugural Company Member of The Industry, Yuval Sharon’s experimental opera company in Los Angeles. She has collaborated with them on multiple world premieres including Hopscotch, Galileo, Bonnie and Clyde, and Invisible Cities, the 2014 Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A champion of new music, Sarah is in demand by composers to bring their work to life for the very first time. She has premiered works by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Ellen Reid, Chris Cerrone, Margaret Brouwer, Marc Lowenstein, Andy Akiho, Andrew McIntosh, and Victoria Bond, among others. Sarah sings “with emotion, humor, and intelligence…. demonstrating her mastery of the art song” (The Plain Dealer). This prowess is on full display in a new release of a Naxos album featuring Margaret Brouwer’s 12-tone song cycle Declaration.
Sarah co-founded Vocatrix, an LA-based Medieval ensemble which brings together early music virtuose to perform the music of Hildegard von Bingen. Sarah sang the role of Castitas in Hildegard’s rarely performed Ordo Virtutum on the Berkeley Early Music Festival. Her interpretation of Hildegard’s songs and hymns were “sung with blinding luminosity” (Mark Swed, LA Times).
She is also a founding member of Blue Streak, a contemporary chamber ensemble based in Cleveland, OH, directed by composer Margaret Brouwer. Other contemporary opera credits include a world premiere as the title role in Clara, an opera by Victoria Bond, on the Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in NYC’s Symphony Space. In 2013 she premiered Prometheus Bound with the Center for New Performance at the Getty Villa Amphitheater featuring music by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Ellen Reid.
Sarah is a graduate of the prestigious Manhattan School of Music and teaches at Reed College in Portland, OR, as well as maintains a private voice studio.
