RECENT GOINGS ON

In the spring of 2025, Sarah sang, played electric guitar, and operated a ventriloquist dummy named Sunny in the world premiere of Jason Cady’s one-woman opera This is Not About Natalie with Experiments in Opera at The Tank in NYC. This piece was written specifically for Sarah’s voice and with her punk-guitarist past in mind. In this genre-bending rockstar role, Sarah received praise in the press for her “…powerful yet flexible voice,” (Classical Voice North America) and was deemed “…entirely convincing as a riot grrrl in a diva’s voice,” by The Wire.

In September of 2025, Sarah performed in the one-woman show, conceived and staged by Sarah herself, Lotte sagt nein, ich sage ja (Lotte says no, I say yes). In this solo recital on steroids, Sarah performed every single aria and song she ever submitted to the Lotte Lenya Competition over the years, in celebration of the hundreds of hours of cumulative work she put into submissions for this competition year after year. After her final rejected submission to the competition in January, 2025, she was officially aged out, so she decided to put it all on stage. In this performance, Sarah sang not only her competition repertoire, but several anti-fascist songs by Kurt Weill, including "Schickelgruber” and “Berlin im Licht”. 100% of the event’s profits went to anti-ICE efforts.

With her guitar chops in tip-top shape from “Natalie” (see above), Sarah was asked to participate in the 15-year anniversary performance of Glenn Branca’s Symphony No. 13: Hallucination City, more widely known as The Symphony for 100 Guitars, at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall on June 12th, 2026. Sarah was thrilled that she (and her Gretsch) had a place in the Alto 3 section of this powerhouse of a piece. Conducted by the brilliant Reg Bloor, Sarah was honored to play alongside some of the biggest names in experimental and noise music for this performance.

EARLIER GOINGS ON

Sarah made her Shakespeare Opera Theatre debut in April, 2025 as the titular role in Drowning Ophelia, a play with music by Rachel Luann Strayer, in which Sarah sang portions of Ophelia’s Mad Scene from Ambroise Thomas’ opera Hamlet.

Sarah made her Bronx Opera debut in May of 2023, in the role of Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites. She has been a member of the Jason Cady Ensemble as well as the Nathan Felix Opera Collective, both of which have give her various opportunities to work collaboratively on new works.

In the summer of 2022, Sarah had the amazing opportunity to work with and perform works by composers Raven Chacon, Alex Temple, and Mark Applebaum at Longy’s Divergent Studio, led by loadbang. She also performed works by Peter Ablinger, Pablo Santiago Chin, and Tawnie Olson. While at the Divergent Studio, Sarah worked closely with Jeff Gavett as she trained in microtonal music, extended vocal techniques, musical improvisation, and performed in multiple world premieres by student composers in Divergent’s “Speed” composition concert.

Earlier in 2022, Sarah performed in the world premiere of Fresh Squeezed Opera’s production of Self Defined Circuits, composed by Jillian Flexner with libretto by Orlando Segarra.

In Sarah’s first season back to live performances in 2021, she reprised one of her favorite roles, Monica in The Medium, with Chelsea Opera. Also a part of Chelsea Opera’s 2021-22 season, Sarah appeared in the world premiere of the “traveling opera” Sidewalk Serenade by Leah Mullen, and in the concert series Songs of Summers Past.

Sarah’s COVID lockdown consisted of a few virtual opportunities, including a libretto workshop of the now critically acclaimed multimedia opera Everything for Dawn with Experiments in Opera.

Sarah made her City Lyric Opera debut on Halloween night, 2019, singing the role of Monica in one of her all-time favorite operas: Menotti’s The Medium. Earlier in 2019 Sarah performed the title role in the world premiere of Chunky in Heat with Experiments in Opera, conducted by David Bloom and directed by Alison Moritz. Sarah’s portrayal of Chunky received rave reviews in the press. The opera was collaboratively composed by Jason Cady, Paula Matthusen, Erin Rogers, Aaron Siegel, Shelley Washington, and Matthew Welch, with a brilliant libretto by A. M. Homes. Sarah also had the honor of premiering Melanie Richard’s vocal chamber piece with eurythmy, “Illusions”, in April of 2019, as a part of Eurythmy Spring Valley’s 2018-19 season.

Sarah’s other favorite operatic roles include The Rooster, Young Frog, Jay, and Fox Cub in Janáček's Příhody Lišky Bystroušky (The Cunning Little Vixen) with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, Sally in Die Fledermaus with Amore Opera, and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro with The Brooklyn Opera Institute.

In addition to stage operas, you can see Sarah's performances in the now internet-famous short opera films with Rainy Park Opera Co. Connection Lost (The Tinder Opera), Something Blue (The Bachelor Opera), and most recently Someone Like Me (The Facebook Opera).

THEATRE, FILM, ETC.

Sarah’s favorite musical theatre roles include Anne in A Little Night Music, Luisa in Nine, Rona in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Jojo in Seussical. Favorite roles in plays include Molly/Karen in Charles L Mee’s Bedtime Stories, Isabella in Tony Kushner's The Illusion and Helene in Welcome to the Monkey House. Film & TV roles include Nadia in Spektral Transmission and Allison in Xeniathan!: A Movie Musical; both student films out of SUNY Oswego’s film program directed by Cameron Ebserold.

In her final year at Manhattan School of Music, Sarah performed in the world premiere of the original musical revue Moving Right Along with music by Jeff Blumenkrantz and book by director Carolyn Marlow, presented by the American Musical Theatre Ensemble. Other world premieres include leading roles in Mike Levin's Pleasureman: A New Rock Musical, Charles L Mee's absurdist play Café le Monde, and a number of original musical revues. 

Opera and musical theatre scenes/partial roles performed include Frasquita in Carmen, Miles in Turn of the Screw, Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Ms. Pinkerton in The Old Maid and the Thief, and June in Gypsy.

TRAINING BACKGROUND

Sarah currently studies voice privately under Rachel Francesca Mondanaro. She received her Bachelor of Music at Manhattan School of Music where she studied voice under Joan Patenaude-Yarnell and Catherine Malfitano, respectively. She also studied with the late, great Marni Nixon as a young singer. Post-grad, Sarah had the opportunity to train as a Fellow at the CoOPERAtive Program at Westminster in the summer of 2019 and at Longy’s Divergent Studio in 2022, where she began her microtonal training with Jeff Gavett.

Sarah has trained as an actor and physical performer most recently with SITI Company, focusing on Suzuki and Viewpoints, and privately with actor and acting coach Tina Mitchell. She has also studied acting at Stella Adler Studios and HB Studios. Sarah comes from a background of physical acting techniques including Viewpoints, Rasaboxes, Comedia del Arte, and Laban Movement Analysis.

Sarah’s dance training includes ballet, jazz, contemporary, and dance improv, as well as waltz, swing, and other couples’ dance styles; she currently takes classes at Mark Morris Dance Group.

Sarah Daniels

Sarah Daniels is a classically trained singer and actor. Her super high extension, bell-like tone, strong low belt, and overall musical expressiveness have allowed her to perform within the genres of opera, musical theatre, and experimental music (including microtonal singing and extended techniques). She has experience acting in plays and on film, with a particular passion for physical acting techniques in her training, including Viewpoints and Suzuki. Because of her eclectic artistic background, Sarah is a performer who will fearlessly jump into any type of musical or theatrical project. She has been creating theatre as a singer, actor, writer, and producer in New York City for over a decade.

UPCOMING GOINGS ON

Sarah is thrilled to be working with Experiments in Opera again this November, 2026! She will be performing in the world premiere of Housewarming Party: a site-specific opera with non-traditional instruments and… many surprises. Music and libretto by Jason Cady, Kamala Sankaram, and Aaron Siegel; directed by Shannon Sindelar. Keep an eye out for dates/locations near you in the future… the premiere is already sold out!