Sarah Hibbard is a masterful musician whose voice has been described as a shimmering soprano with a resounding quality reminiscent of the golden age of singing. The Albuquerque Journal declares her to have "a brilliant sound and thorough-going technique, clearly a star in the making." In Chicago she was praised for her "charismatic acting technique and her verismo singing."
Summer of 2006 was highlighted by Ms. Hibbard's main stage debut with Santa Fe Opera as Frasquita in Carmen. Recent performances include, Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata with DuPage Opera Theater (IL) and again with Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sarah returns this season to Opera Southwest as Valencienne in The Merry Widow, with the Las Vegas Philharmonic in Mahler's Symphony #2, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with both Wichita Symphony Orchestra and Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra and Handel's Messiah with Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Hibbard's operatic portrayals of past seasons include Gilda in Rigoletto, Nedda in Pagliacci, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Mimi in La Boheme, the Countess in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Della in Gift of the Magi by David Conte. Other lead roles are Amelia in Amelia Goes to the Ball, Gretel in Hansel und Gretel, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Sister Genovieffa in Suor Angelica and Adele in Die Fledermaus.
On the concert stage, Ms. Hibbard excels in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis, Vaughan-Williams Sinfonia Antarctica, Handel's Messiah, Orff's Carmina Burana, Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Mahler's Symphony No. 4 and Mozart's Requiem.
A winner and finalist in major vocal competitions, Ms. Hibbard holds degrees in vocal performance from Michigan State University, Boston's New England Conservatory and Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas. She spent the summer of 2005 as an apprentice with the prestigious Santa Fe Opera where she covered the role of Nuria in Peter Sellars' world premiere stagine of Ainadamar by Osvaldo Goliov.