ABOUT

Soprano Sara LeMesh, hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle for her “powerhouse performance of vocal majesty and expressive translucency,” is a dramatic presence on the opera stage, an avid chamber musician, and an advocate of contemporary music. A third-prize winner in the 2023 Serge & Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Awards and MI Opera International Vocal Competition, LeMesh is quickly garnering attention for her “mesmerizing” and “affectingly plangent” singing (Opera News). In the spring of 2023,  LeMesh was the resident soprano with Opera Naples where she performed the roles of Josephine in Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Woman #1 in Rodriguez’s Frida, and Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen, in addition to several concerts with the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Radu Paponiu. In September 2023, the rising soprano joins Opera Philadelphia to cover the leading role of Nellie in the world premiere of Rene Orth’s 10 Days in a Madhouse. 

 

A devoted recitalist, LeMesh was a fellow at the Marlboro Music Festival during the summers of 2022 and 2023. In June 2022, she made her Marlboro debut in Schumann’s Spanisches Liederspiel with pianist Jonathan Biss, and in October 2022, she made her debut with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players singing Fauré’s La bonne chanson and Chausson's Chanson perpétuelle. LeMesh is thrilled to make her solo recital debut in New York City with the Musicians Club of New York in October 2023 when she will present a concert of Jewish art song. Other upcoming engagements include a world premiere by Melissa Dunphy at the 2024 American Guild of Organists Convention and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Fairfield County Chorale under the baton of David Rosenmeyer. 

 

Additional operatic credits include Bess in the 2019 West Coast Premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s award-winning opera, Breaking The Waves, with West Edge Opera. The San Francisco Classical Voice lauded her “lush tone, exceptional high-register clarity, dramatic breadth, and fearless command.” In November 2022, she portrayed Young Lisa/Leah in the New York Premiere of Lori Laitman’s Uncovered with City Lyric Opera, a role which she covered and ultimately performed for two of five performances. ​Also with City Lyric Opera, LeMesh played Lucy Brown in Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, and Opera News applauded her portrayal which “seemingly channeled Teresa Stratas.” Other triumphs include Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Pocket Opera and Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale with the Mendocino Music Festival.

 

LeMesh has performed throughout the United States and Europe at venues and festivals including The Morgan Library & Museum, Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, American Bach Soloists, and International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum Salzburg. While at Tanglewood, she was a soloist in Berlioz’s Les nuits d'été under the baton of Stéphane Denève and co-premiered Folk Songs by Bernard Rands. With pianist Allegra Chapman, LeMesh performs regularly in the piano-vocal duo Chordless, creating unique spaces to explore and appreciate music that has historically been ignored or is brand new. 
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The Californian soprano received her Master of Music Degree from the Bard College-Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music Degree from Rice University. She currently resides in New York City with her husband and rescue dog, Coco. When she isn’t singing in traditional venues, you can find LeMesh performing outreach recitals in prisons, rehabilitation centers, and nursing homes.

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Updated September 2023