Arts Global

Radiant American mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke caused a sensation as Kitty Oppenheimer in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. She was praised in The New Yorker for her "fresh, vital portrayal, bringing a luminous tone, a generously supported musical line, a keen sense of verbal nuance, and a flair for seduction."

The 2010-2011 season brings several notable debuts for Sasha Cooke: with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in Mahler’s Rückert Lieder; with the Baltimore Symphony under Marin Alsop in songs of Alma Mahler; with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Edo de Waart in Das Lied von der Erde; with Louis Langrée and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in Mozart’s Davidde penitente; with Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in sacred music of Bach; with the Houston Symphony in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth; and with the Edmonton Symphony under William Eddins in Duruflé’s Requiem. She performs Mahler’s "Resurrection" Symphony both with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony and with Gerard Schwartz and the Seattle Symphony; returns to Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall with James MacMillan’s Raising Sparks; reprises Alexander Nevsky and Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with the Kansas City Symphony; and gives recitals at the Kennedy Center, Merkin Concert Hall, and the University of Minnesota.

Ms Cooke held the Lindemann Vocal Chair of Young Concert Artists, where in 2007 she won First Prize in their International Auditions, as well as the Rhoda Walker Teagle Prize, the Fergus First Prize, the Swiss Global Foundation Award, and the Embassy Series Concert Prize. In 2010, she was awarded First Place and the American Prize in the 2010 José Iturbi International Music Competition, as well as the Kennedy Center’s Marian Anderson Award. Additionally, Ms Cooke earned First Prizes in the 2007 Sun Valley Opera Vocal Competition and the 2006 Bach Vocal Competition sponsored by the American Bach Society and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, as well as Third Prize in the 2006 Licia Albanese-Puccini Competition.

A graduate of Rice University and the Juilliard School, Sasha Cooke also attended the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival, the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute, the Wolf Trap Foundation, the Marlboro Music Festival, and Central City Opera’s Young Artist Training Program.