Soprano Sarah Shafer loves what she does, being able to work on great music every day and telling stories through singing, while sharing it with an audience.
“I hope that people will look at me as a vessel for the music I am singing, as someone who serves the music. My goal as a singer is to make clear and understandable what is on the page, so that the music can speak for itself,” she said.
Well-Rounded Artist
Sarah grew up in a musical family, as both parents are classical musicians and there was always singing and music filling her house.
“It instilled an early love of music in me and my two sisters,” she said.
Sarah took piano lessons with her father from age 5 to 17, and sang in the children’s choir directed by her mother. These opportunities gave her the ability to shape a phrase, map the structure of a piece, learn a role quickly, sight-read, play an accompaniment for herself, listen to others around her, blend her sound with someone else, sing pure vowels, follow a conductor, and declaim text expressively.
“All of these skills my parents were developing in me as a child, and now I use them every day!” Sarah said.
Projects and Performances
These skills have led her to a vast singing career. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, she is currently preparing for an opera audition, a lieder recital with pianist Richard Goode at Spivey Hall in Georgia, and Bach’s St. John Passion with conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. She recently performed a chamber music concert with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and pianist Anna Polonsky. She also has performed in operas, including Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with San Diego Opera and Pamina in The Magic Flute at San Francisco Opera.
“I love a good variety,” she said.
For the 2019 Oregon Bach Festival, she will join celebrated British conductor Jane Glover and other singers and musicians in the opening concert, Mozart Requiem, on Friday, June 28 in Silva Concert Hall. Also, on Sunday, June 30, she will be part of the All-Handel Concert with conductor John Butt, the OBF Baroque Orchestra and soprano Arwen Myers.
Her latest project was a world premiere song cycle titled Songs of Emily Dickinson by Shanan Estreicher, performed with the Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall. Sarah loves supporting and singing new works, and especially seeing how a composer will set great texts.
“It is important for audiences of classical music to hear what today’s composers are writing, and equally as important for instrumentalists and singers to debut new works,” she said.
Hard Work
Sarah thinks there is always room for improvement and hard work can get you there.
“In my singing life, I wish I had a more natural and innate technique,” she said. “Some people are just born with cheekbones and breath that seem to send the sound out with no effort at all. My natural tendencies all veer towards tension, and so I have to work very hard to undo my instinct and release a free sound.”
Sarah said for new musicians, or even veterans of the arts, they should learn to enjoy the work of improving their instrument and spending time in the score. If they enjoy it, they will be diligent to practice and get better, and when they are working to improve their craft, the work will come as a byproduct of that.
“My goal is to always be working toward the next thing, and I have so much more to learn in my life and career, that I have a ways to go yet before calling something my most cherished accomplishment. I hope I haven’t accomplished it yet!” she said.
Learn more about Sarah Shafer.
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