Hailed as “nothing short of sensational” by Opera magazine and “a real creature of the stage” by Opera News, soprano Sari Gruber’s exciting and moving performances of a diverse operatic and concert repertoire have firmly established her as one of today’s most sought-after artists on the international stage.  In opera, she has garnered praise for her “shining soprano and vibrant presence” (Opera News), her “direct musicality” (NY Times), as well as her “detailed, charming, resourceful and sympathetic” characterizations (Boston Herald).  For her artistry as a recitalist, she was awarded the first prize of the 2005 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation International Vocal Competition.

Sari Gruber’s engagements in 2009-10 include her return to Austin Lyric Opera as Musetta in La Bohème and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Pittsburgh Opera.  Her 2008-09 featured her debut with Arizona Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni; a return to New York Festival of Song in ”A Bernstein and Bolcom Celebration;” performances of Messiah with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra; a concert of Bernstein music at the Gaelen Center for the Performing Arts; an appearance as featured soloist with the Grand Tour Orchestra in a scene from Telemann’s dramatic cantata, Ino,  and the North American premiere of two works for soprano and strings by Baldassare Galuppi.  In summer of 2009 she sang Musetta in La Bohème with Opera East Texas.

In the 2007-2008 season, Ms. Gruber performed Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with the North Carolina Symphony under the baton of Grant Llewellyn, followed by Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with Opera Carolina, and her role debut as the title character in The Cunning Little Vixen with Chautauqua Opera.  She will sing her first Haydn Creation with Boston Baroque, Stravinsky’s Les Noces with New York City Ballet’s Jerome Robbins Festival, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Skaneateles Chamber Orchestra, as well as concerts with New York Festival of Song and Sun Valley Opera, and recitals for the Skaneateles Festival and at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, IL.

Ms. Gruber’s operatic credits include appearances with Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Netherlands Opera, Maggio Musicale di Firenze, Saito Kinen Festival, Seiji Ozawa’s Ongaku-Juku Opera Project, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Pacific, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Portland Opera, Connecticut Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Berkshire Opera, Madison Opera, among others, where she has performed leading roles including Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Norina in Don Pasquale, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Gilda in Rigoletto, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Rose in Street Scene, Alexandra in Regina, Anna in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, Musetta in La Bohème, Nannetta in Falstaff, Aricie in Hippolyte et Aricie, Poppea in Agrippina, Carolina in Il Matrimonio Segreto, Marzelline in Fidelio, Despina in Così fan tutte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Beth in Little Women, Lisette in La Rondine , and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Audiences nationwide saw her perform Gretel as a member of the prestigious Juilliard Opera Center in a 1997 live Great Performances telecast of Hänsel und Gretel on PBS.

On the concert stage, Ms. Gruber has sung with St. Louis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, Florida Philharmonic, Berkshire Choral Festival, Jacksonville Symphony, Omaha Symphony, and San Jose Symphony in repertoire ranging from Handel’s Messiah to Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 to Bernstein’s West Side Story.

An accomplished recitalist whose song repertoire spans nine languages, Sari Gruber has appeared in recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, in addition to other noted recital venues, including New York’s 92nd Street Y and Miller Theater, San Francisco Performances at the Herbst Theatre, Chicago Humanities Festival, and New York Festival of Song.  She has given recitals throughout the United States under the auspices of the Naumburg Foundation and the Marilyn Horne Foundation.  Other notable recital credits include a pre-concert recital of Copland’s Poems of Emily Dickinson for New York Philharmonic’s Copland Festival, appearing as the featured recitalist for the MTNA/NATS national convention in Salt Lake City, and solo recitals at Skidmore College and with San Francisco Opera Center’s Schwabacher Debut Recital Series.

Ms. Gruber holds a B.A. from Yale University, and a Master of Music in Voice from The Juilliard School.  She pursued further training at the Juilliard Opera Center, and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program.  Her love of recital brought her to study song literature at both the Tanglewood Music Center and the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute.  A semi-finalist in the 1996 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Ms. Gruber has also been awarded the Sara Tucker Grant from the Tucker Foundation, the William Sullivan Grant, a study grant from the Licia Albanese Foundation, two Richard F. Gold Career Grants, the DeRosa Prize from The Juilliard School, and the prestigious Louis Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts given to one graduating senior from Yale College each year at Commencement.  Having grown up in Germany and the United States, she now resides in Pittsburgh with her husband, opera administrator William J. Powers and their daughter.