BIOGRAPHY
Noted for her “playful performance” and wit on stage, French American Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Scofield is a versatile artist dedicated to telling stories to and for anyone who will listen.
In the current season, Sarah appeared with Opera Philadelphia in their 50th anniversary kick-off production of Il viaggio a Reims as Maddalena. She made her Carnegie Hall debut as the alto soloist in Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, and She also joins St. Petersburg Opera Company as Nireno and covers Sesto in Giulio Cesare.
Sarah was a Resident Artist with Utah Opera from 2023-2025, where she made her professional operatic debut as the Fox in Rachel Portman and Nicholas Wright’s The Little Prince. During her residency, she also covered Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, performed Myrtale in Thaïs, sang Der Sandmännchen and covered the title role in Hänsel und Gretel, and appeared as Kate Pinkerton in Matthew Ozawa’s critically acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly.
While pursuing her Master’s degree at University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Sarah performed the role of Uta Hagen in a workshop of Scott Davenport’s opera Robeson in Moscow with Cincinnati Opera Fusion: New Works. She also appeared as Narciso in Handel’s Agrippina. In an unintentional survey of principal female roles without names, Sarah’s other operatic credits include Messaggiera (the Messenger) in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Die Zweite Dame (the second lady) in Die Zauberflöte, and The Foreign Woman in the The Consul.
A lover of song, Sarah has spent summers at Songfest as a Stern Fellow and at the Music Academy of the West. As a Stern Fellow, Sarah premiered Anna Weesner’s 3 Simple Songs, appeared alongside Graham Johnson in a recital focusing on Schubert Lieder, appeared alongside John Musto in Paris, Berlin, New York, and performed selections from Jake Heggie’s “What I Miss the Most” in a concert curated by the composer.
Fiercely dedicated to cultivating accessible musical experiences, Sarah regularly appears in performances which center disability and neurodiversity. This season Sarah will perform in Access to Music with the Utah Symphony, a performance of opera scenes which is free and accessible to disabled students in the state of Utah. In 2023, she appeared with the Cincinnati Song Initiative in Beautiful Small Things, as a part of the LYNX Project’s Amplify Series; performing settings of texts by non-speaking autistic youth. Sarah also appeared in Spectral Sights and Sounds, a collage of theater and song detailing the lived experience of autism.
A firm believer in the creation of music as an act of service and activism, Sarah was featured as a performer during the 2018 Lawrence University Refugee Symposium. Following discussion by an esteemed panel of experts, Sarah sang the U.S. premier of Beneath the Azure Sky. This chamber piece rebelliously sets poems of Afghani refugee women, who were prevented from learning to read and write.
In her free time, Sarah can be found neglecting her houseplants, perfecting her bagel-making skills or crouching in bushes attempting to take photos of wildlife. When not singing, she contributes to conservation and public education as an educator with the Center for Whale Research, where she assists in research efforts and helps foster public curiosity about the killer whales of the Salish Sea.
She is an alumna of the University of Cincinnati-CCM and is indebted to her teachers Nova Thomas, William McGraw, Quinn Patrick Ankrum, and Joanne Bozeman.