American soprano Sara Duchovnay has been praised by The San Francisco Examiner as “clarion voiced” and OperaWire described her as “dynamic and expressive”, further adding that she “sang with warmth and luster” and “moved with elan, thus matching her vocal vibrancy”. Of her 2019 role debut as Nedda in Pagliacci with Opera Roanoke, the Roanoke Times praised her “nuanced portrait of an unhappy woman” and “her high notes [which] rang out with ease at the swelling climaxes in both her fi rst act aria and in her love duet with Silvio.”

In recent seasons, Sara made her debut with the Grand Teton Music Festival, covering Cio-Cio San and singing Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly under the baton of Sir Donald Runnicles. She also made her Swiss debut performing Alma Mahler’s Fünf Lieder with the Musikkollegium Winterthur Orchestra under the baton of Kalena Bovell, performed Strauss‘ Vier Letzte Lieder and Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time under the baton of Deanna Tham, and served as Artist in Residence for the Görlitz/Zgorzelec Jewish Remembrance Week – performing concerts in Germany and Poland, a project she was honored to join given her family history as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.

Sara’s repertoire has developed alongside the natural growth of her voice, deepening in richness and breadth. Having begun her career with lighter lyric and coloratura roles — such as Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Nanetta (Falstaff), Blondchen (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), and Musetta (La bohème) — she now embraces the demands of fuller lyric repertoire including Donna Anna and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Alcina (Alcina), and Liù (Turandot); as well as spinto/Jugendlich dramatischer Sopran roles like Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) and Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos).

Notable highlights from past seasons also include debuts as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Delaware, Die erste Dienerin in Die ägyptische Helena with Odyssey Opera, and as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Madison Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John DeMain.

A champion of contemporary opera, Sara has originated roles in new works including Dorothea in Middlemarch in Spring and Helen in Howard’s End, America, both by Allen Shearer and Claudia Stevens, and has performed in modern staples such as Philip Glass’s Hydrogen Jukebox and Michael Ching’s Buoso’s Ghost.

Sara lives in Berlin with her husband, tenor Clay Hilley, and holds degrees from The Hartt School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.