Sarah Mann

Sarah Mann is a music educator and soprano, currently researching operatic singing perception. Her interdisciplinary PhD project involves interviews, auditory experiments and creative work exploring the ways the operatic singing technique is perceived and processed by listeners.

Sarah received awards for vocal development and for the Most Outstanding Graduate of the School of Music at ANU before freelancing as an oratorio and chamber opera soloist for professional choirs (Llewellyn Choir, Canberra Choral Society, Tasmanian Music Society) and orchestras (Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra). She has created 26 principal roles, from Cosette in Les Misèrables, Mozart soprano roles Despina, Susanna and Pamina, to operetta roles, Rosalinda (Der Fledermaus), Mabel (Pirates of Penzance), and Josephine (HMS Pinafore). Most recently she was cast as Yvette in National Opera's (Covid cancelled) production of Puccini's La Rondine.

As a recitalist, Sarah has worked collaboratively with pianists Ella Luhtasaari, Susanne Powell and Simon Kenway. A NSWARTS funding recipient, she teamed up with instrumentalists David Pereira (cello), David Griffiths (clarinet) and guitarist, Harold Gretton, for chamber concerts.

In teaching, she achieved the Australian Kodaly Certificate in music education, became a mentor for NSWDEC teachers in Richard Gill's National Music Teacher Mentoring Program, and lectured music in tertiary teaching programs at the Australian Catholic University, Strathfield. She teaches and regularly assesses classical voice students, most recently as a sessional tutor at the School of Music.