Sarah Brailey

A native of Wisconsin, GRAMMY Award-winning soprano Sarah Brailey enjoys a versatile career that defies categorization. Praised by The New York Times for her “radiant, liquid tone,” and “exquisitely phrased” singing, and by Opera UK for “a sound of remarkable purity,” she is a prolific vocal soloist, cellist, ensemble singer, recording artist, and educator.

Among her many career highlights, she has appeared as a soloist with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, serenaded the Mona Lisa with John Zorn’s Madrigals at the Louvre in Paris, and performed with Kanye West and GRAMMY Award-winning alternative-classical vocal band Roomful of Teeth at the Hollywood Bowl. Other memorable engagements include Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Colorado Symphony, recording cello and vocal soundscapes for the 2018 Fog x FLO public art installation in Boston’s Emerald Necklace; and inhabiting the role of The Soul in the world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison, for which she received the 2020 GRAMMY for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Notable recent and upcoming projects include Julia Wolfe’s Her Story with the Lorelei Ensemble and the Boston, Chicago, Nashville, National, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras; John Zorn works with Barbara Hannigan at the Elbphilharmonie; and Handel’s L’Allegro with the Mark Morris Dance Group.

Sarah is a featured soloist on several GRAMMY-nominated albums, including New York Polyphony’s Sing Thee Nowell and The Clarion Choir’s recording of Maximilian Steinberg’s Passion Week, as well as the world premiere recording of Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music. She sings the role of the impish fairy Verveine on the world premiere recording of Le Dernier Sorcier by Pauline Viardot, also featuring mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and bass-baritone Eric Owens. She can be heard on Christopher Cerrone’s 2019 GRAMMY-nominated album The Pieces that Fall to the Earth, David Lang’s love fail with the Lorelei Ensemble, and the Rachmaninov All-Night Vigil with the Clarion Choir.

Sarah maintains a private voice studio and has conducted master classes and artist residencies at institutions all over the country, including the Peabody Institute, Harvard University, Duke University, Cornell University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others. She has served on the faculties of the St. Thomas Fifth Avenue Summer Girl Chorister Course in New York City and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was appointed Director of Vocal Studies at the University of Chicago in 2021.  

Dedicated to building artistic communities and opportunities for young artists, Sarah is a co-founder of Just Bach, a monthly concert series in Madison, Wisconsin where she is also the Artistic Director of the Handel Aria Competition, a showcase for emerging professional singers dedicated to highlighting Handel's extensive vocal repertoire. 

Sarah is a member of Beyond Artists, a coalition of artists that donate a percentage of their concert fees to organizations they care about. Devoted to helping sustain a healthy planet, Sarah supports NRDC, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and the Animal Welfare Institute. An avid cyclist and nature lover, she lives in Madison with three bikes, three cats, and a plethora of houseplants. www.SarahBrailey.com.