These concerts are the North Carolina Symphony debut for Sarah Coburn.

Soprano Sarah Coburn has performed on many of the world’s great stages, including The Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, the Wiener Staatsoper, and Welsh National Opera. A graduate of Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program, she returned in 2024 as a soloist for their 60th Anniversary Gala. She also reprised the role of Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with Charlottesville Opera in July. 

During the 2022/23 season, Coburn returned to one of her signature roles, joining New York City Opera as the title role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor for a performance in Bryant Park. Her recording of Bellini’s I Puritani, featuring tenor Lawrence Brownlee and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra of Lithuania and Kaunas State Choir, was released in 2021. Recent seasons have included Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, a reprisal of Lucia di Lammermoor with Lyric Opera Kansas City, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Choral Arts Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center. 

Coburn has appeared in concert with Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and Russian National Orchestra, among others. She joined the Handel & Haydn Society as soloist for Handel’s Messiah and has also sung Messiah with Seattle Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra. 

Coburn created the role of Kitty in the world premiere of David Carlson’s Anna Karenina at Florida Grand Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and performed the role of Princess Yue-Yang in the world premiere production of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera opposite Placido Domingo. She has received awards from the George and Nora London Foundation, the Richard Tucker Foundation, The Jensen Foundation, The Liederkranz Foundation, and Opera Index, and she was a National Grand Finalist in the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.