Lyric Soprano Sarah Elizabeth Wolfson has already demonstrated a remarkable ability to communicate with an audience, whether in recital or on the operatic stage. In 2007 she was awarded the 1st Place Prize (Victor and Sono Elmaleh Award) in The Concert Artists Guild Competition. Under CAG she receives recital and concert management, as well as the opportunity to commission new works through the BMI Foundation Commissioning Prize and record on the Naxos Label. In addition she will also be making her Weill Hall solo recital debut. This will include two newly commissioned works by composers Carl Bettendorf and Paola Prestini.

An avid performer of new music, she recently made her Zankel Hall debut performing the world premiere of Jonathan Dawe's Oveture and Ballet Music from Armide with American Composers Orchestra. She has also created the role of Celia in the world premiere of John Musto’s Volpone, a comic opera based on the 16th-century Ben Johnson satirical play of the same title, commissioned and presented by the Wolf Trap Opera Company. Making her Off-Broadway, Ms. Wolfson created the role of Jane/Aeola in The New Group’s world premiere production of Wallace and Allen Shawn’s play/opera, The Music Teacher. She also recorded the opera for Bridge Records, in which Opera News reviewed her as having "standout moments". In spring of 2009 she will perform the Berio Folk Songs with the Cincinnati Chamber Symphony, as well as perform a recital at The Italian Academy that will include Berio's Sequenza III.

This summer Ms. Wolfson opens the Rockport Chamber Music Festival performing works that include Mussorgsky and Weill. She will also perform works by Dowland, Scarlatti, Grainger, Berio, and Jobim with fellow Concert Artists Guild roster artists, The Brazil Guitar Duo. They will perform with The Chautauqua Chamber Music Festival and The Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival. In the '08/'09 season Ms. Wolfson will be performing recitals with the Port Washington Public Library, Patchogue Theater, Ridgewood Public Library, East Meadow Public Library, The German Cultural Institute of St. Louis, and The Italian Academy.

Recent engagements for Ms. Wolfson include soloist in the Bach B Minor Mass with American Symphony Orchestra as part of the Symphony Space Wall to Wall Bach. As the 2005 winner of The Juilliard Vocal Arts Alice Tully Hall Debut she made her Lincoln Center recital debut. In addition to Turina, Mussorgsky, Wolf, and Bolcom, she performed Berio Folk Songs with the critically acclaimed Axiom Ensemble. She has sung the role of Bacchis in Offenbach’s La belle Hélène and covered Zerlina in Don Giovanni with The Santa Fe Opera. She has performed Despina in Cosi fan tutte with Aspen Opera Theater to critical acclaim. As part of the Aspen Stravinsky Rex Minifestival she sang Ravel's Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé. Other roles include Crobyle in Thaïs with Kentucky Opera, Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea with Opera North, Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Wolf Trap Opera Company, Priestess in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride with Spoleto Festival USA, and Anne in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music with the Brevard Music Festival. As a member of the Florida Grand Opera Young Artists Program, Ms. Wolfson performed the roles of Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone, and Micaela in La Tragédie de Carmen, as well as covering Alexandra Giddens in Blitzstein’s Regina. She also covered the title role in Handel’s Arianna in Creta with The Gotham Chamber Opera.

Ms. Wolfson is a recent graduate of the Juilliard School. She received the William Schuman Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music, the highest award given to a graduate student. While at Juilliard, Ms. Wolfson performed the roles of Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Sidonie/Lucinde in Gluck’s Armide, Jenny Reefer in Thompson’s The Mother of Us All, and Rose in Weill’s Street Scene. She was also chosen to be featured on the PBS American Masters documentary The Juilliard Experience.

In the recital arena, Ms. Wolfson has performed at the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, in a recital of 20th century American song, including Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles. She was chosen twice to sing on Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recitals in Alice Tully Hall - singing Poulenc’s Fiançailles pour rire in 1999, while still an undergraduate, and excerpts from Bolcom’s Cabaret Songs in 2001. In addition Ms.Wolfson has given solo recitals in Juilliard’s Paul Hall, and has appeared in a number of Juilliard Liederabends and Song Book recitals. She was also chosen to be a part of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Chamber Music series in Alice Tully Hall. Ms. Wolfson was the 2004-2005 winner of the Vocal Arts Society Recital Competition. She was named the winner of the 2005 Juilliard Vocal Arts Alice Tully Recital Debut. As part of Juilliard's centennial celebration, she performed Bernd Franke's Petrel Seascapes with The New Juilliard Ensemble in Alice Tully Hall. In spring of 2006 Ms. Wolfson appeared at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, DC as part of the Embassy Series. Also in 2006 she work-shopped and performed Love Past Cure, a new opera based on Monteverdi madrigals interwoven with Shakespeare sonnets with the International Sejong Soloists as part of La Jolla Summerfest.

As a recipient of a Lucrezia Bori Grant for study abroad from Juilliard, Ms. Wolfson was able to study in Salzburg, Austria, where she performed recitals at The Sacellum and Schloss Leopoldskron. She also participated in the Steans Institute for Young Artists at The Ravinia Festival and at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival where she continued her focus on recital repertoire.

Ms. Wolfson is currently on the faculty of Columbia University where she teaches vocal performance. She is also a member of Sing for Hope, a non-profit organization that facilitates the connection between artists and charities providing a network of support. Through Sing for Hope Ms. Wolfson has worked closely with Bent on Learning to help raise support and awareness for yoga and meditation in the New York City Public Schools. This past spring she organized and performed on a fundraising concert at the Rubin Museum in New York City. She has also received her yoga teacher certification (RYT) from Tias and Surya Little in Santa Fe, NM through Prajna Yoga. For more information please go to:
www.singforhope.org
www.bentonlearning.org
www.prajnayoga.org