Sasha Cooke

Mezzo-Soprano

Biography

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 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 Boston Conservatory with pianist Jessica Shinn, at Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach with John Churchwell, in Stanford alongside Laura Dahl and members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and at the Cleveland Institute of Music alongside pianist Kirill Kuzmin and guitarist Jason Vieaux. 

Ms. Cooke’s 2022/23 season began with a return to Houston Grand Opera in her role debut as Thirza in the company’s new production of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers conducted by Patrick Summers. On the concert stage, she performed throughout the U.S. and abroad: in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Houston Symphony conducted by Juraj Valčuha; Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Wiener Konzerthaus; Michael Tilson Thomas’ Meditations on Rilke with the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer; Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra alongside Gemma New; and Mozart’s Requiem with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Klaus Mäkelä and later with Nashville Symphony. She made her debut with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, and the Utah Symphony in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, which she later performed with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under the baton of Alan Gilbert. She made returns to the Chicago Symphony for works by Vivaldi, to the Philadelphia Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah and to the Kansas City Symphony for Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d. Special collaborations on the recital stage included Jake Heggie’s Intonations: Songs for the Violins of Hope with Music of Remembrance; recitals with guitarist Jason Vieaux at San Francisco Performances and Round Top Festival; and a recital featuring how do I find you at Kaufman Music Center, alongside pianist Kirill Kuzmin.

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Recent News

Sasha Cooke Sings World Premiere Recital at the San Francisco Symphony

On Sunday, January 30, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke will perform the world premiere of her new album, how do I find you (Pentatone), in recital with pianist Kirill Kuzmin at the San Francisco Symphony. The album, available Friday, January 28, features seventeen original...

Reviews

“Cooke’s Cherubino was equally nimble and fleet-footed, except when pinned to the ground by Van Horn’s Figaro. Cooke was excellent as the over-sexed teenage page that had clearly learned a trick or two from the Count, exhibiting more cockiness than awkwardness in the young man’s relentless quest for romance. With a plummier voice than many a mezzo-soprano who assays the role, Cooke dashed off an impressive, fleet-footed ‘Non so piu’ and an ardent ‘Voi che sapete’.”

Le nozze di Figaro, The Metropolitan Opera, April 2022

Rick Perdian

New York Classical Review

“Sasha Cooke did an utterly valid, sonorous and expressive work in the complex part of Eduige. Graceful onstage, she proved a mistress of the style, displaying a pleasing liquid tone. (Then this sentence which I would leave out: Ever attentive to the words, Cooke and Costanzo made more specific use of the Italian text than did their peers.)

Rodelinda, The Metropolitan Opera, March 2022

David Shengold

Opera News

“… experiencing Mahler’s “Songs of a Wayfarer” interpreted by a charismatic performer with a pure and powerful voice was well worth braving the first wintry night of the season. Cooke displayed richness throughout her ample range and an animated, theatrical approach to creating a character for the four Mahler songs, widely regarded as the first song cycle written for orchestra…. It was some masterful Mahler.”

 

Rob Hubbard

Minneapolis Tribune

“Sasha Cooke, as Genièvre, phrased her text with bequilling skill, unleashing her wide-ranging, sensuously cushioned mezzo with dynamic acumen.”

David Shengold, Opera News, October 2021

David Shengold

Opera News

“Sasha Cooke’s mezzo-soprano was exquisitely rounded and ensured that Goffredo’s arias were delivered with a certain sumptuousness and complete sense of ease.”

Rinaldo, The English Concert, March 2018

Sam Smith

Music OMH

“Mezzo-soprano, Sasha Cooke’s voice was luxurious, full-bodied and round, so powerful that at times when the electro-acoustic orchestra was at a fortissimo level, she could still be heard over the group. She sensitively portrayed Laurene, Jobs’ gentle, comforting influence.”

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Santa Fe Opera, July 2017

Mary Helen Klare

Albuquerque Journal

“The splendid mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke brought dark colorings and penetrating richness to her solos.”

Anthony Tommasini

The New York Times

“The best thing about this performance [by the San Francisco Symphony at the Royal Festival Hall in London] was Sasha Cooke, the American mezzo whose resonant tone and intelligent projection raised the fourth movement [of Mahler’s Third Symphony] to a different level.”

Andrew Clark

Financial Times