Sara Schabas joined the Art Song Foundation of Canada in 2024.
Praised for her “beautifully clear, light lyric soprano,” Toronto-born soprano Sara Schabas has received awards from the Eckhardt-Grammaté Competition, the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the Hnatyshyn Foundation, and the IRCPA in Toronto. This season, she performs a recital in the Canadian Opera Company’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, joins the Grand Philharmonic Choir for James Whitbourn’s Annelies, sings Carmina Burana with the MGSO and Chorus under the direction of Jean-Sebastien Vallée, Eve in Jonathan Dove’s The Walk from the Garden with Little Opera Company of Winnipeg, and Musetta in La bohème with ICAV/Orchestre Classique de Montréal. She recently performed as the title role in Maxime Goulet’s The Flight of the Hummingbird with Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera, returning the following season to sing as the Dormouse in POV’s filmed production of Elizabeth Raum’s The Garden of Alice. Further roles include Henri in Tapestry Opera’s Dora-nominated production of Bandits in the Valley and Anne Frank in Cecilia Livingston’s Singing Only Softly with Loose Tea Music Theatre in 2020, for which she was nominated for the Dora for Outstanding Performance by an Individual. Sara began her career singing Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) with the Dayton Opera in Ohio, Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) with the Aspen Opera Theatre and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the late Lorin Maazel. She has performed as a soloist with organizations and venues including Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings, the Dayton Philharmonic, Mississauga Symphony, Oakville Masterworks,Vienna’s Concentus Musicus, and the Zürich Opera House. Sara is a current member of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists, and holds degrees from the University of Toronto and Roosevelt University with additional studies at Vienna’s Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst. She is also a yoga teacher, writer, and is currently pursuing doctoral studies at McGill University researching the Austrian-Canadian mezzo-soprano and pedagogue Emmy Heim.
www.saraschabas.com