Two-time Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke 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 90 symphony orchestras worldwide frequently in the works of Mahler. In 2022 Ms. Cooke was appointed 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 Award for Best Vocal Solo Album.
Ms. Cooke began the 2024/25 season with a return to the Bard Festival as Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust followed by Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the Gstaad Festival, conducted by Sir Mark Elder. On the operatic stage, she debuts at La Monnaie de Munt as Emilie Ekdahl in the world premiere of Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek’s Fanny and Alexander and returns to Houston Grand Opera in her role debut as Venus in a new production of Tannhäuser. On the concert stage, Ms. Cooke reprises much of her most celebrated repertoire, singing Mahler’s Second Symphony with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Daniel Harding, San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen in his final performances as music director, and Vienna Radio Symphony and Marin Alsop at the Wiener Konzerthaus. She sings Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Karina Canellakis, the Cologne Philharmonic and Cristian Macelaru, and the Tuscon Symphony Orchestra, where she also performs the Rückert-Lieder. She joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel for a program of Alma Mahler, which she also brings to Royal Festival Hall in London with the London Philharmonia and Marin Alsop. Other concert engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Schönberg’s Gurrelieder with the Vienna Symphoniker, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with St. Louis Symphony and Gemma New, and a concert with the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra featuring Des Knaben Wunderhorn with her husband, baritone Kelly Markgraf. In recital, Ms. Cooke returns to Wigmore Hall for a recital with pianist Malcolm Martineau, and Carnegie Hall for Shostakovitch’s From Jewish Folk Poetry with Susanna Phillips, Brandon Jovanovich, and pianist Evgeny Kissin.
