Two-time Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has been called a “luminous standout” by the New York Times and “equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness” by Opera News. Ms. Cooke 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. Last season marked Ms. Cooke’s appointment at the Music Academy of the West as Co-Director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute. Her album how do I find you was nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Solo Album.

Ms. Cooke opens the 2023/24 season with a return to the San Francisco Opera, reprising the role of Laurene Jobs in Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs which won the 2019 Grammy for Best Opera Recording. She also makes role debuts as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at Opéra de Rouen, conducted by Ben Glassberg and as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Houston Grand Opera, conducted by Dame Jane Glover. She sings world premieres by Joby Talbot in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at Dallas Opera and by Scott Ordway in a song cycle on the Stanford Live series. In concert, Ms. Cooke returns to the San Francisco Symphony for Pulcinella, Oregon Symphony and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for Messiah and performs and records Corigliano’s One Sweet Morning with Nashville Symphony. Ms. Cooke gives recitals at Boston Conservatory with pianist Jessica Shinn, at Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach with John Churchwell, at the Cleveland Institute of Music alongside pianist Kirill Kuzmin and guitarist Jason Vieaux and at Stanford Live with pianist Laura Dahl and members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet.

Ms. Cooke opened the 2022/23 season with a return to Houston Grand Opera in her role debut as Thirza in the company’s new production of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers conducted by Patrick Summers. On the concert stage, she performed throughout the U.S. and abroad: in Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Wiener Konzerthaus, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Houston Symphony conducted by Juraj Valčuha, Michael Tilson Thomas’ Meditations on Rilke with the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer, Mahler’s Symphony no.3 with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra alongside Gemma New and Mozart’s Requiem with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Klaus Mäkelä and later with Nashville Symphony. She debuted with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano and the Utah Symphony in Mendelssohn’s Elijah which she later performed with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under the baton of Alan Gilbert. She made returns to Chicago Symphony for works by Vivaldi, to Philadelphia Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah and to Kansas City Symphony for Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d. Special collaborations on the recital stage included Jake Heggie’s Intonations: Songs for the Violins of Hope with Music of Remembrance; recitals with guitarist Jason Vieaux at San Francisco Performances and Round Top Festival; and a recital at Kaufman Music Center, alongside pianist Kirill Kuzmin featuring how do I find you.

how do I find you, a collection of words and music created in 2020 and released on Pentatone records, is intended as a tribute to both the struggles and hopes of artists that have been wrought by the pandemic. The album can be listened to on all streaming platforms.

As a dedicated recitalist, Ms. 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, The Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center and the 92nd St 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, Michael Tilson Thomas’ Meditations on Rilke with the San Francisco Symphony with won the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium, 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 2nd Symphony with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra on BIS and Sasha Cooke LIVE a collection of her performances from the Music@Menlo chamber music festival released on their label.

A graduate of Rice University and The Juilliard School, Sasha Cooke also attended the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival, the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute, the Wolf Trap Foundation, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and Seattle Opera and Central City Opera’s Young Artist Training Programs. Ms. Cooke has given masterclasses throughout the United States, Australia and Canada. She lives near Houston, TX with daughters Evelyn and Julia and husband baritone Kelly Markgraf.