Bio
Sarah Daniels
A classically trained singer with both traditional and experimental training in theatre, Sarah Daniels is a performing artist who can comfortably jump into any project in the musical and theatrical realms. Sarah has a particular passion for contemporary opera and experimental theatre, and with these foci she has been creating theatre as a singer, actor, writer, and producer in New York City for over a decade.
RECENT GOINGS ON
Sarah will make her Bronx Opera debut this May of 2023, in the role of Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites, to be performed in English. She is a member of the Jason Cady Ensemble as well as the Nathan Felix Opera Collective, both of which give her ongoing opportunities to work collaboratively on new works. She has recently written the poetry for pieces by composers Nathan Felix and Matthew Welch, as well as for a few of her own musical compositions.
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.
While 2020 consisted of many cancellations, pre-lockdown 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. Sarah’s portrayal of Chunky received rave reviews in the press, as did the entire ensemble. 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, and Jay 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).
OTHER PERFORMANCES
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 and partial roles performed include Frasquita in Carmen, Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Miles in Turn of the Screw, Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Ms. Pinkerton in The Old Maid and the Thief, and June in Gypsy.
ADDITIONAL TRAINING
Sarah currently studies under Nikki Li Hartliep. 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.
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.
ADDITIONAL PROJECTS
One of Sarah’s proudest artistic projects was singing in and making her debut as a producer for a double-billed production of Menotti's The Telephone and Poulenc's La Voix Humaine, working closely with acclaimed directors Ashley Tata and Paul Peers at The Alchemical Theatre Laboratory in NYC. In this innovative production of The Telephone, she performed the role of Lucy alongside mezzo-soprano Rachael Hirsch who played the normally-baritone role “Ben” as “Peg”.
Other producing credits include The Found Festival: a festival of short plays by NYC-based women writers, The 1440 Play & Scene Series: a 24-hour play festival, The Vagina Monologues, and Charles L Mee’s Bedtime Stories. She produced these shows through her theatre company The Bia Theatre Ensemble, which she cofounded with Leanne Convis in late 2017, leading to a prolific 2018 of more than a dozen new productions. Sarah wrote one of the plays featured in The Found Festival and performed in Bedtime Stories alongside co-star Matt Miller.
FUN FACTS
Sarah dabbles in film photography with cool old cameras, writes poetry and stories, and participates in Inktober every year. She and her husband are often found playing pool on their local APA league or enjoying a post-hardcore show together. Sarah has traveled to all 50 states and can’t whistle to save her life.