Sara Louise Petrocelli, mezzo soprano from New Jersey, was most recently seen on stage at the Metropolitan Opera in Borodin’s Prince Igor. Also in the 2013-2014 season, she debuted as Sesto in La clemenza di Tito with NYC’s dell’Arte Ensemble, and performed Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Western Plains Opera. She was named a district winner in the 2012 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. From 2010-2012, Sara was part of two successful seasons as a Studio Artist with Tulsa Opera, throughout which she appeared in several mainstage productions as Flora Bervoix (La Traviata), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Jade Boucher in a Tulsa Opera premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. She also participated in numerous concerts and outreach performances, singing excerpts from the roles of Adalgisa (Norma), Rosina, Sister Helen (Dead Man Walking), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), and Suzuki. In July 2010, she received the Grand Prize as well as the award for the youngest finalist in the International Concorso Lirico in Arquata Scrivia, Piemonte. In the upcoming 2014-2015 Season, Sara debuts in the role of Beppe in Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz with Winter Opera St. Louis, and makes returns to Western Plains Opera as the title role in Carmen, and to the Metropolitan Opera in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, conducted by Maestro James Levine. She will also be presented in concert by Jane Marsh with the Metropolitan Opera Guild, previewing the Metropolitan Opera’s 2015 production of Massenet’s Werther.

In 2012, Sara joined the esteemed Caramoor Festival to cover the title role of Ciro in Babilonia, and sang Suzuki with New Rochelle Opera, and Teresa (La Sonnambula) at the Altamura Center for the Arts in New York. In the 2010-2011 Season, Sara performed with Opera Company of Middlebury as Suzy in Puccini’s La Rondine, and debuted as Suzuki in the Brescia version of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the National Lyric Opera in NYC and Boston. She also appeared in concert with the Westchester Symphonic Winds to sing excerpts of Copland’s The Tender Land, and with Carnegie Room Concert productions for a solo Schubert Lieder recital. An exciting 2008-2009 Season brought Sara’s first Flora with New Rochelle Opera, Cherubino with Dicapo Opera, Mrs. Fox in the NY premiere of Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and residencies at Lake George Opera, and at Natchez Opera with Maestro Christopher Larkin. Under the direction of Róbert Alföldi, she portrayed Susanna Walcott in Ward’s The Crucible which traveled to Szeged, Hungary, was broadcast to over 40 countries, and won first place in the 2008 Armel Opera Competition.

In 2009-10, she returned to Hungary in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline, and appeared as Immelda Mortara in the world premiere of Il Caso Mortara by Francesco Cilluffo. In 2008, Petrocelli was a young artist for Sarasota Opera with Maestro Victor DeRenzi, and David Neely.

Sara is the recipient of a 2007 Career Grant from the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust. She garnered awards from the 2005 Young Singers’ Foundation, the 2007 Queens Opera Vocal Competition, and the Carnegie Mellon Concerto Competition as the soloist in Ravel’s Shéhérazade. Directed by Jacque Trussel, under a Nancy Jo Abeles Scholarship to the Purchase Conservatory of Music, Sara performed title roles in Dido & Aeneas, The Tragedy of Carmen and Hänsel und Gretel, and portrayed Madame Croissy (The Dialogues of the Carmelites). The latter two productions both won the National Opera Association’s award for Best Production. Sara holds a Master of Music degree from Carnegie Mellon University where she studied with Mildred Miller. Ms. Petrocelli lives in NYC where she studies with Alan Dornak.