Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke presents a master class as part of Boston Conservatory at Berklee's Opera Innovators Series. Cooke has been called a “luminous standout” by the New York Times and “equal parts poise, radiance, and elegant directness” by Opera News. 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 80 symphony orchestras worldwide, frequently performing the works of Mahler.
As a dedicated recitalist, Cooke was presented by Young Concert Artists in her widely acclaimed New York and Washington debuts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and the Kennedy Center. She has also appeared in recital at Alice Tully Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the 92nd Street Y. Her recordings can be found on the Hyperion, BIS, Chandos, Pentatone, Naxos, Bridge Records, Yarlung, GPR Records, and Sono Luminus labels.
Her most recent recordings include Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer; Michael Tilson Thomas’s Meditations on Rilke with the San Francisco Symphony, which won the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium; L’enfance du Christ with Sir Andrew Davis and the Melbourne Symphony; and Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, which won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
A graduate of Rice University and the Juilliard School, Cooke was appointed codirector of the Lehrer Vocal Institute at the Music Academy of the West in 2023.
This event is open to Berklee students, faculty, and staff with a valid Berklee ID, and invited guests only.
Sasha Cooke is presented as part of Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Opera Innovators Series in partnership with the Boston Lyric Opera.
Program Information
Repertoire
ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK (1854-1921): “Wo bin ich?” from Hänsel und Gretel
Bella Abbrescia, soprano
Nicolas Giusti, piano
JOHN ADAMS (b. 1947): “Am I in Your Light?” from Doctor Atomic
Julia Janowski, mezzo-soprano
Maja Tremiszewska, piano
PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893): “Kuda, kuda” from Eugene Onegin
Fred VanNess Jr, tenor*
Nicolas Giusti, piano
GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901): Stornello
Kayla Kovacs, soprano
Nicolas Giusti, piano
KEVIN PUTS (b. 1972): “We had one room” from Elizabeth Cree
Alexis Peart, mezzo-soprano*
Maja Tremiszewska, piano
MARGARET BONDS (1913-1972): Sonnet: “Even in the Moment” No. 1 from Four Songs
Alternate: Sam Crosby-Schmidt, tenor
Maja Tremiszewska, piano
*denotes Boston Lyric Opera Steven and Jane Akin Emerging Artist
Welcome
Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Voice Department accomplishes the extraordinary, meeting the needs of its community and the evolving industry through its relevant curriculum and a myriad of exciting opportunities that surface on our campus every day. The scope and variety of annual Voice Department performances and curated offerings testify to the ways Boston Conservatory mentors its students to thrive as artist-citizens in an ever-changing world and marketplace. We continue building on the rich history of our Voice Department that houses the oldest opera training program in America and that has served young artists, the field of singing, and the city of Boston for more than 100 years. Indeed, our students, faculty, and staff are heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit, dream, and music that long preceded us and that now nourishes and sustains us.
Last year, the Conservatory announced a new educational and artist development partnership with our neighbor, Boston Lyric Opera (BLO). The partnership unlocks incredible opportunities for Boston Conservatory students and members of BLO’s Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artists, and includes the Opera Innovators Series—a curated collection of talks and master classes that will now engage some of the most innovative and sought-after figures in the opera world. Additionally, Voice Department classes in art song, vocal pedagogy, and the choral arts will welcome an exceptional lineup of visiting clinicians, each of whom brings their own powerful and distinct voice to bear on our season’s productions and curricula.
I am so grateful to our generous donors whose giving provides access to the tools and resources our students and faculty need to succeed here and beyond. Providing a transformative high level of training is the Conservatory’s reason for being. Inherent in this charge is our faculty and administration’s commitment to foster a genuine sense of goodness, breathing familial inspiration through our Conservatory’s hallways and learning spaces. There is an ethic of care here that is distinct and that champions people’s goals and aspirations in ways where they feel creative, safe, powerful, and courageous in and through the learning. We’re helping students build a life for themselves through music that has purpose and that could actually change the world. With a faculty of international renown, a stealthy annual lineup of important visiting artists, and a strong commitment to a meaningful list of civic and global initiatives, Boston Conservatory’s Voice Department is an exciting place to be!
I hope you enjoy your experience with us this evening and welcome you to join us again often.
Isaí Jess Muñoz
Interim Dean of Music
About the Artist
Sasha Cooke is a Grammy Award winner who has been called a “luminous standout” by the New York Times and “equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness” by Opera News. Ms. 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. Last season marked Ms. Cooke’s appointment at the Music Academy of the West as Co-Director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute. Her album how do I find you was nominated for a 2022 Grammy for Best Vocal Solo.
Ms. Cooke opens the 2023/24 season with a return to the San Francisco Opera, reprising the role of Laurene Jobs in Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs which won the 2019 Grammy for Best Opera Recording. She makes role debuts as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at Opéra de Rouen and as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Houston Grand Opera, conducted by Dame Jane Glover. She sings world premieres by Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at Dallas Opera and by Scott Ordway in a song cycle on the Stanford Live series. In concert, Ms. Cooke returns to the San Francisco Symphony for Pulcinella, Oregon Symphony and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for Messiah and performs and records Corigliano’s One Sweet Morning with Nashville Symphony. Ms. Cooke gives recitals at at Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach with John Churchwell, at the Cleveland Institute of Music alongside pianist Kirill Kuzmin and guitarist Jason Vieaux, and at Stanford Live with Laura Dahl and members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet. More information can be found on her website www.sashacooke.comSasha Cooke is presented as part of Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Opera Innovators Series in partnership with the Boston Lyric Opera.Concert Services Staff
Senior Manager of Concert Services – Luis Herrera
Coordinator, Concert Services – Matthew Carey
Concert Production Manager – Kendall Floyd
Performance Technology Technicians – Sara Pagiaro, Goran Daskalov
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