Sasha Cooke

Praised by Opéra Magazine for her "agile, glamorous presence," two-time Grammy Award-winning mezzo Sasha Cooke has been called a "luminous standout" by The New York Times and "equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness" by Opera News. She has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, and with over 80 symphony orchestras worldwide, frequently in the works of Mahler. In 2022 she was appointed as co-director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute at the Music Academy of the West. Her album how do I find you was nominated for a 2022 Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Solo.

In the 2025-2026 season, Cooke returns to Houston as Hänsel in Houston Grand Opera's Hänsel und Gretel opposite Mané Galoyan, making her directorial debut leading the company's family day presentation of the opera. She later joins Seattle Opera for her role debut in the title role of Bizet's Carmen in a production by Paul Curran. In recital, Cooke tours her program Of Thee I Sing with pianist Myra Huang, appearing at the Kennedy Center presented by the Vocal Arts Society of D.C., Baylor University's Distinguished Artists Series, Park Avenue Armory and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. On the concert stage, she sings Mahler's Symphony No. 2 at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, followed by the world premiere of Alex Turley's the ocean's dream of itself at the Grand Teton Music Festival, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. She joins Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra for Verdi's Requiem at Saratoga Performing Arts Center and appears with the Baltimore Symphony, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, a signature piece of hers. She sings Handel's Messiah with Music of the Baroque and Jane Glover, and with the Cincinnati Symphony, also conducted by Glover. She returns to the San Francisco Symphony for Mozart's Requiem conducted by Manfred Honeck, and joins the Wiener Symphoniker in Mahler's Symphony No. 3 conducted by Petr Popelka. Additional concert appearances include Elgar's Sea Pictures with the Sydney Symphony and Sir Donald Runnicles and Verdi's Requiem with Detroit Symphony. She joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players for Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, which she also sings with Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonika.

Cooke has performed with opera companies worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Parallèle, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Israeli Opera and English National Opera. During her career, she has been engaged by over 80 orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, New Zealand Symphony, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, New World Symphony and Festival de la Côte Saint-André, under leading conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Riccardo Muti, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Edo de Waart, Trevor Pinnock, Harry Bicket, Pinchas Zukerman, Gerard Schwarz, Riccardo Frizza, James Gaffigan, Vasily Petrenko, Sir Mark Elder, John Nelson and Krzysztof Urbański. Cooke has performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall's Weill and Zankel Halls, Palau de la Música de València, Hollywood Bowl, Theater an der Wien, Alice Tully Hall, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Elbphilharmonie and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Previous festival appearances have included the Spoleto Festival USA, Aspen Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Lucerne Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, New York Festival of Song, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A devoted interpreter of new music, she has premiered works by Mark Adamo, Mason Bates, William Bolcom, Pierre Jalbert, Laura Kaminsky, Lowell Liebermann, Nico Muhly, John Musto, Marc Neikrug, Kevin Puts, Jimmy López, Augusta Read Thomas and Joby Talbot.

As a dedicated recitalist, Cooke was presented by Young Concert Artists in her widely acclaimed New York and Washington debuts at Carnegie's Zankel Hall and the Kennedy Center. She has also appeared in recital at Alice Tully Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center and the 92nd Street Y. Her recordings can be found on the Hyperion, BIS, Chandos, Pentatone, Naxos, Bridge Records, Yarlung, GPR Records and Sono Luminus labels. Most recently she appears on recordings including Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer on Pentatone, L'enfance du Christ with Sir Andrew Davis and the Melbourne Symphony on Chandos, Bates' The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs on Pentatone, which won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra on BIS, Michael Tilson Thomas' Meditations on Rilke with the San Francisco Symphony which won the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium, and Sasha Cooke LIVE, a collection of her performances at the Music@Menlo chamber music festival released on their label.

Sasha Cooke is a graduate of Rice University and the Juilliard School. She also attended the Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival's Steans Music Institute, Wolf Trap Foundation, Marlboro Music Festival, Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and Seattle Opera and Central City Opera's Young Artist Training Programs.