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The American soprano, Sari Gruber, was born in Boston, but grew up in Germany until she was about 9; then returned to the USA. She holds a B.A. from Yale University, and a Master of Music in Voice from The Juilliard School. She pursued further training at the Juilliard Opera Center, and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program. Her love of recital brought her to study song literature at both the Tanglewood Music Center and the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute. A semi-finalist in the 1996 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she has also been awarded the Sara Tucker Grant from the Tucker Foundation, the William Sullivan Grant, a study grant from the Licia Albanese Foundation, two Richard F. Gold Career Grants, the DeRosa Prize from The Juilliard School, and the prestigious Louis Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts given to one graduating senior from Yale College each year at Commencement. For her artistry as a recitalist, she was awarded the first prize of the 2005 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation International Vocal Competition.
Hailed as "nothing short of sensational" by Opera magazine and "a real creature of the stage" by Opera News, Sari Gruber's voice has been described as "luminous" and "show-stopping great," while her vibrant and passionate portrayals have "lit up the stage" in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary works. A prized artist on the international stage, she has garnered praise for her "shining soprano and vibrant presence" (Opera News), her "direct musicality" (New York Times), as well as her "detailed, charming, resourceful and sympathetic" characterizations (Boston Herald).
Sari Gruber’s operatic credits include appearances with Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Netherlands Opera, Maggio Musicale di Firenze, Saito Kinen Festival, Seiji Ozawa’s Ongaku-Juku Opera Project, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Pacific, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Portland Opera, Connecticut Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Arizona Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Berkshire Opera, Opera East Texas, Madison Opera, among others, where she has performed leading roles including Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Norina in Don Pasquale, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Gilda in Rigoletto, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen, Rose in Street Scene, Alexandra in Regina, Anna in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, Musetta in La Bohème, Nannetta in Falstaff, Aricie in Hippolyte et Aricie, Poppea in Agrippina, Carolina in Il Matrimonio Segreto, Marzelline in Fidelio, Despina in Così fan tutte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Beth in Little Women, Lisette in La Rondine , and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Her operatic highlights include Alexandra in Regina for her debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago; Lisette in La Rondine and Miss Hedgehog in the world premiere of Tobias Picker's The Fantastic Mr. Fox with Los Angeles Opera; and Carolina in Il matrimonio segreto, Aricie in Hippolyte et Aricie, and Varvara in Kát'a Kabanová with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. She has performed the role of Susanna with New York City Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Pacific, Kentucky Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, and the Ongaku-Juku Opera Project under the baton of Seiji Ozawa; Nannetta in Falstaff at New York City Opera; Despina in Così fan tutte with Pittsburgh Opera, Berkshire Opera and Anchorage Opera; Norina with opera Company of Philadelphia and Boston Lyric Opera; Gilda in Rigoletto with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Connecticut Opera and Toledo Opera; Anne Trulove in Rake’s Progress and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Musetta with Opera Company of Philadelphia and Opera East Texas; Juliette with Opera Carolina and Chautauqua Opera; and Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel with New York City Opera, Opera Columbus, Omaha Symphony, and for PBS Great Performances telecast from the Juilliard Opera Center in 1997. She performed in George Frideric Handel's Samson staged for De Nederlandse Opera, and as First Niece in Peter Grimes at both the Saito Kinen Festival (Japan) and Maggio Musicale di Firenze. She has recorded for Deutsche Gramophon and Albany labels, and has been heard on broadcasts on NPR and a number of local radio stations.
Sari Gruber is equally in demand on the concert stage and has sung sung with Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston Baroque, North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, ProMusica Chamber Ensemble, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, Florida Philharmonic, Berkshire Choral Festival, Skaneateles Festival, Gettysburg Festival, Jacksonville Symphony, Omaha Symphony, and San Jose Symphony. Her concert repertoire is wide and she has performed Messiah with both the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under Jane Glover and with Boston Baroque; Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with the Columbus Symphony, J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor (BWV 232) at Columbia University, and G.F. Handel’s Silete Venti and other cantatas with Portland Baroque Orchestra, as well as Leonard Bernstein’s Songfest.
An accomplished recitalist whose song repertoire spans nine languages, Sari Gruber has appeared numerous times in recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, in addition to other noted recital venues, including New York’s 92nd Street Y and Miller Theater, Caramoor Festival, San Francisco Performances at the Herbst Theatre, Skaneateles Festival, and Chicago Humanities Festival, as well in recital Palm Springs, Carmel, Pensacola, Pittsburgh and Kansas. She enjoys a special relationship with New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), and is honored to serve on its Artists Council in addition to performing with the group annually. She has given dozens of recitals throughout the USA under the auspices of the Naumburg Foundation and the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Other notable recital credits include a pre-concert recital of Copland’s Poems of Emily Dickinson for New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s Copland Festival, appearing as the featured recitalist for the MTNA/NATS national convention in Salt Lake City, and solo recitals at Skidmore College and with San Francisco Opera Center’s Schwabacher Debut Recital Series.
Recent highlights include her return to Austin Lyric Opera as Musetta; Messiahs with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra; Vixen in Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen at the Chautauqua Institution; several programs with New York Festival of Song, including "Where We Came From" and "A Bernstein and Bolcom Celebration"; Susanna with Pittsburgh Opera; her debut with Arizona opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni; her return to Boston Baroque for Haydn's The Creation; soloist in G.F. Handel's Israel in Egypt with New York's Collegiate Chorale and with New York City Ballet in Igor Stravinsky's Les Noces; Susanna with North Carolina Symphony Orchestra; Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Skaneateles Chamber Orchestra; Bach cantatas with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and an appearance with the Grand Tour Orchestra in a scene from Georg Philipp Telemann's dramatic cantata, Ino; and the North American premiere of two works for soprano and strings by Baldassarre Galuppi.
Sari Gruber’s engagements in 2010-2011 season included Musetta in La bohème with Opera Colorado; her signature role, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; in Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at "Tanglewood on Parade"; a return to New York Festival of Song for a concert entitled "Night and Day/USA: Americans Working and Dreaming"; as soloist with Oklahoma City Philharmonic in Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915; in Messiah with Winston-Salem Symphony; as soloist in "The Best of Italian Opera" with Buffalo Philharmonic; and several recitals, including at Queens College's Kupferburg Center in New York City, on the Rodef Shalom Series as well as with the Pittsburgh Song Collaborative (, of which she is a founding member) at Carnegie Music Hall, both in Pittsburgh. In addition, she performed excerpts from Lori Laitman's new opera The Scarlet Letter, as well as selected songs through Opera America's Salon Series. In the 2011-2012 season she was engaged to perform as Leila in The Pearl Fishers with Hawaii Opera Theater; with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra as soloist in Messiah; as soloist with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra in a concert entitled "New Year's in Vienna", Grant Llewellyn conducting; and in three separate concerts at the Skaneateles Festival, as soloist in Schubert's Shepherd on the Rock, Heitor Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, and songs by Andre Previn. She also returns to Oklahoma City Philharmonic for Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4, and sings in recital at St. Vincent College.
Sari Gruber now resides in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania with her husband, opera administrator William J. Powers and their daughter. |
