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Canadian/French Soprano Sarah Parkin (she/her) specialises in new music and contemporary opera. She is an experienced deviser of new, immersive pieces and regularly incorporates physical theatre practices into her work.

                             

Most recently, Sarah premiered ‘Voices of the Sands’, a dramatic concert piece for three voices and harp by Michael Betteridge (touring 2022-24); and ‘Roll Up!’, an immersive sensory opera with Mahogany Opera at Sandgate School (Cumbria) by Jack McNeill and Claire Willoughby.

Performances/roles include: Student 3, Innocence by Kaija Saariaho (Cover - Royal Opera House); p.e.r.s.o.n.a.l.c.l.u.t.t.e.r. (Dark Music Days, Reykjavik), featuring works by Berglind Tómasdóttir, Jenni Hogan and Jessie Marino; ‘Four Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’ by Angela Slater (Illuminate Women’s Music); originating the soprano role in A Kinder Society, an immersive opera by Amy Bryce (Stiftung Kunst and Musik für Dresden); Catherine Kontz ‘A Certain Sense of Order’ (tick tock opera tour in UK/Luxembourg); Harvey Brough: ‘The Hive’ (Angel Fields Festival, Liverpool); Saariaho: ‘From the Grammar of Dreams’ (impuls Festival, Graz) and originating roles in ‘Wear’ and ‘Robe’ with composer Alastair White and UU Productions (for Tête-à-Tête and Metier record label).

Composer collaborations include: Nikos Stavropolous (Leeds 2023 Season One: Awakening), Angela Slater (Illuminate Women’s Music), Helgi Ingvarsson (Tung Auditorium), Matthew Lee Knowles, Fleur de Bray, Cecilia Livingston (for Canada House/Canada-UK Foundation), and Hanbury & Groves (for Rough for Opera and the Helios Collective). Sarah has appeared in recordings with the Riot Ensemble (at Trinity Laban Conservatoire), with the 10/10 Ensemble (Royal Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool), as well as in the Left Bank Opera Festival (Leeds), the Grimeborn Festival (Arcola Theatre, London), the Polyphonic Poetry Festival (Cambridge) and in a moving sound installation at London Cavalcade.

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In 2023-24, Sarah will be co-creating ‘On Being Vocal’, a one-woman micro-opera with composer Rania Chrysostomou on the unvoiced thoughts of mothers and women; and will be part of the inaugural cohort on the VOICEBOX programme, delivered by Juliet Fraser in partnership with Britten Pears Arts; City, University of London; Sound Festival and Dartington Music Summer School.

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