Sasha Cooke
Praised by OPÉRA MAGAZINE for her “agile, glamorous presence,” two-time Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has been called a “luminous standout” by the New York Times and “equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness” by Opera News. Sasha Cooke has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, and with over eighty symphony orchestras worldwide, frequently in the works of Mahler. Handel's Messiah on November 30 and December 1 marks her debut with Music of the Baroque.
This season, Sasha Cooke returns to Houston as Hänsel in Houston Grand Opera’s Hänsel und Gretel opposite Mané Galoyan, making her directorial debut leading the company’s family day presentation of the opera. She later joins Seattle Opera for her role debut in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen. In recital, Sasha Cooke tours her program Of Thee I Sing with pianist Myra Huang, appearing at the Kennedy Center presented by the Vocal Arts Society of D.C., Baylor University’s Distinguished Artists Series, Park Avenue Armory, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. On the concert stage, she sings Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, followed by the world premiere of Alex Turley’s the ocean’s dream of itself at the Grand Teton Music Festival, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. She joins Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem at Saratoga Performing Arts Center and appears with Baltimore Symphony, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, a signature piece of hers. She sings Handel’s Messiah with the Cincinnati Symphony conducted by Dame Jane Glover. She returns to the San Francisco Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Manfred Honeck and joins the Wiener Symphoniker in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 conducted by Petr Popelka. Additional concert appearances include Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Sydney Symphony and Sir Donald Runnicles and Verdi’s Requiem with Detroit Symphony. She joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players for Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, which she also sings with Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonika.