Sarah Hibbard, soprano
Sarah Hibbard is a masterful musician whose voice has been described as a shimmering soprano with a resounding quality reminiscent of the golden age of singing. The Albuquerque Journal declared her to have “a brilliant sound and thorough-going technique, clearly a star in the making.” In Chicago she was praised for her “charismatic acting and her verismo singing,” and the Salt Lake Tribune noted her “youthful beauty and lyrical phrasing.”
Ms. Hibbard made her main stage debut with Santa Fe Opera as Frasquita in Carmen and sang Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata with DuPage Opera Theater (IL) and with Opera Southwest of Albuquerque, NM. She recently received rave reviews for her Nedda in Pagliacci for Utah Festival Opera where she also sang Micaëla in Carmen. Ms. Hibbard has sung Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with both the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and the Millikin-Decatur Symphony and Handel’s Messiah with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. Recent concert work includes Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Muncie Symphony (IN), and Verdi’s Requiem with the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra.
Upcoming engagements include Brahms’ Requiem with the South Bend Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Evanston Symphony and Messiahs with the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra and Augustana College. She is scheduled for Haydn’s Creation with the Park Ridge Symphony and she covers the role of Amanda in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre for Alan Gilbert with the New York Philharmonic.
Additional operatic portrayals include Gilda in Rigoletto, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Mimi in La Bohème, the Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Della in Gift of the Magi by David Conte. Additional lead roles include Amelia in Amelia Goes to the Ball, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Sister Genovieffa in Suor Angelica and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus.
On the concert stage, Ms. Hibbard excels in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Missa Solemnis, and Choral Fantasy, Vaughan-Williams’ Serenade to Music and Sinfonia Antarctica, Handel’s Messiah, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.
A winner and finalist in major vocal competitions, Ms. Hibbard holds degrees in vocal performance from Michigan State University, Boston’s New England Conservatory and Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas. She was twice an apprentice with Santa Fe Opera where she covered the role of Nuria in Peter Sellers’ world premiere staging of Ainadamar by Osvaldo Golijov, and was later invited to sing the Ainadamar program at Lincoln Center.