Sarah Saturnino

Mexican American mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, praised for her “big, smooth mezzo and regal presence” continues to cement her place as one of the finest young dramatic voices singing on the major stages of the world today (Parterre Box). A 2023 winner of The Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, she was quickly engaged by The Metropolitan Opera for Rigoletto, and recently performed as Maddalena in Rigoletto at Los Angeles Opera. Last summer, she made her “formidable” debut as Fricka in Die Walküre at Santa Fe Opera, a role she will reprise in the current season with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Wall Street Journal). She will also appear with the LA Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and return to the Los Angeles Opera to debut the role of Meg Page in Falstaff.

Saturnino is a recent graduate of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at LA Opera, where she made her mainstage debut in the role of Emilia in Otello and sang Jocabed in Mollicone’s Moses. In the 2023–2024 season, she performed the title role in Carmen with Opera Santa Barbara, Alice Ford in Sir John in Love at the Bard Music Festival, Fricka with Lyric Opera of Kansas City in Michael Christie’s Journey to Valhalla, and Flora in La traviata with LA Opera.

Saturnino is a former apprentice artist with Santa Fe Opera, where she covered the title role in Carmen and Meg Page in Falstaff. During the 2021 summer season with Santa Fe Opera, she covered the roles of Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is an alumna of Chautauqua Opera Company’s Young Artist program where she covered Paquette in Candide and sang Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos in their Apprentice Scenes Program. Saturnino performed with the Miami Beach Classical Music Festival as Le Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon, was a soloist in Handel's Messiah with the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival, as well as multiple concerts in Tuscany, Italy with Bel Canto in Tuscany.

Saturnino received the Donald & Luke Graham Memorial Award (2022) and the Campbell/Wachter Scholarship Award (2021) from Santa Fe Opera. She received the Faculty Award from the Vann Vocal Institute in 2020. She has also received awards from the Laffont Competition, San Diego District.

Her concert works include Verdi: Requiem with the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Other works include Handel’s “Let God Arise,” and “O sing unto the Lord.” She has also sung in the Pipes at One series at Trinity Church on Wall Street, and Chautauqua Opera Company’s Emerging Artists Recital. She has performed Bernstein’s Candide in concert as The Old Lady with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.

Saturnino is a choreographer, fight director, and intimacy director. Her work includes Feel the Tango, Speed Dating Tonight!, and Le nozze di Figaro for Shreveport Opera. She was the fight captain for Carmen while at

Santa Fe Opera. She works with Sordelet Inc. as a Fight and Intimacy Director. She is also trained in fencing. Saturnino graduated cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance and a Music Industry Minor in 2016. She graduated with honors from the Yale University School of Music with a Master of Music in 2018.