Sarah Rachel Bacani
Filipino-American soprano Sarah Rachel Bacani is currently the soprano Resident Artist at Toledo Opera where she performs the role of Adèle/Spirit of the Rose in their touring outreach production of Grétry’s Beauty and the Beast. Her 2023-2024 season included covering the role of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) at Central City Opera, where she also performed the role in their Family Matinee production as a Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program Apprentice Artist. In 2022, also with Central City Opera, she made her professional debut performing the role of Mariola in Heggie’s Two Remain. On the Indiana University Opera Theater stage, she performed the roles of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte). There, she also performed in scenes as Leïla (Les Pécheurs de Perles), Micaëla (Carmen), and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte). An accomplished competitor, this year, she placed in the Top 12 of the Inaugural Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition and is a semi-finalist in Fort Worth Opera’s McCammon Voice Competition. She previously competed as a finalist for the 2024 Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera National Voice Competition, placing sixth (Kay Carpenter Memorial Award) and winning the Irene Patti Swartz Memorial Award to a Soprano. She was also a semi-finalist for the 2024 Shreveport Opera Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition. In concert, Ms. Bacani has performed the soprano solo in Britten's Les Illuminations, Mozart’s Requiem, and Getty’s The White Election. Hailing from Toms River, NJ, Ms. Bacani received her Performer Diploma and Master of Music in voice at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied under the tutelage of Jane Dutton. She received her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Cynthia Hoffmann. Ms. Bacani portrayed Liat in Toledo Opera's South Pacific.