Born in County Durham, Sarah Connolly studied piano and singing at the
Royal College of Music and continued her studies with Gerald Martin Moore.
Her concert engagements include appearances at the Salzburg Festival,
Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie and Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with
such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Roger Norrington,
Edo de Waart and Philippe Herreweghe. She is a regular guest artist at the
BBC Promenade Concerts at Royal Albert Hall and was invited to take part
in the opening festival of Carnegie’s new Zankel Hall in New York.
Committed to promoting new music, her world premiere performances include
Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Twice through the heart’ with The Schoenberg
Ensemble conducted by Oliver Knussen and Jonathan Harvey’s ‘Songs of Li
Po’ at the Aldeburgh Festival.
In the 1999/2000 season, her U.S. debut in the title role of ‘Ariodante’
for the New York City Opera was hailed as an enormous success and was
described in the New York Times as ‘Phenomenal…[her] voice is dark and
true, remarkably flexible and filled with the required heat’. This was
followed in the 2000/2001 season by her debut at the San Francisco Opera
singing both Ino and Juno in ‘Semele’. She has since returned to the NYCO
as Romeo in ‘I Capuleti ed i Montecchi’ and the title role of ‘Xerxes’.
This season she made an acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut as Annio in ‘La
clemenza di Tito’ and her Carnegie Hall recital debut in the Weill Hall.
European engagements include Nerone in ‘L’Incoronazione di Poppea’ at the
Maggio Musicale in Florence and her débuts at the Paris Opera as Sesto in
‘Giulio Cesare’, the Theatre des Champs Elysées as Juno, and at the Munich
Festival in the title role in ‘The Rape of Lucretia’. At English National
Opera her roles include Handel’s ‘Xerxes’ and ‘Ariodante’, Ruggiero (‘Alcina’),
Susie (‘The Silver Tassie’), Ottavia (‘L’Incoronazione di Poppea’), Sesto
(‘La clemenza di Tito’), Dido (‘Dido and Aeneas’ and ‘The Trojans’), Romeo
(‘I Capuleti ed i Montecchi’) and the title role in ‘The Rape of Lucretia’
which was televised for the BBC. She recently sang the title role in
‘Giulio Cesare’ at Glyndebourne.
Sarah Connolly’s recording of Handel arias with The Sixteen, ‘Heroes and
Heroines’, has been described as “the definition of captivating” by
Classics Today. Among her other recordings are ‘Das Knaben Wunderhorn’
with L’Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Philippe Herreweghe for Harmonia
Mundi and Mozart’s ‘Mass in C Minor’ and Haydn’s ‘Scena di Bernice’ with
the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh for Deutsche Grammophon. She sings
the title role in Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas’ at La Scala in 2006.
Her concert engagements include appearances at the Salzburg Festival,
Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie and Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with
such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Roger Norrington,
Edo de Waart and Philippe Herreweghe. She is a regular guest artist at the
BBC Promenade Concerts at Royal Albert Hall and was invited to take part
in the opening festival of Carnegie’s new Zankel Hall in New York.
Committed to promoting new music, her world premiere performances include
Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Twice through the heart’ with The Schoenberg
Ensemble conducted by Oliver Knussen and Jonathan Harvey’s ‘Songs of Li
Po’ at the Aldeburgh Festival. 
Sarah Connolly’s recording of Handel arias with The Sixteen, ‘Heroes and
Heroines’, has been described as “the definition of captivating” by
Classics Today. Among her other recordings are ‘Das Knaben Wunderhorn’
with L’Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Philippe Herreweghe for Harmonia
Mundi and Mozart’s ‘Mass in C Minor’ and Haydn’s ‘Scena di Bernice’ with
the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh for Deutsche Grammophon. She sings
the title role in Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas’ at La Scala in 2006.
