Sarah Beckham-Turner - Soprano
A true singing actress, soprano Sarah Beckham-Turner has earned critical acclaim for being “soulful and affecting. . . with a bright and gorgeous controlled soprano.” Beckham-Turner’s 2017 season brought a huge success with New York City Opera’s production of Angels in America as Harper and Ethel Rosenberg, in which The New York Times hailed her as “best. . . wry even in desperation as Harper, her voice cool yet vibrating with vulnerability,” and The Observer said, “the only singer who scaled the requisite peak of greatness was Sarah Beckham-Turner, ideally and aggressively querulous as the drug-addled Harper Pitt, and, later, delicately savoring her cold dish of revenge as the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg. Ms. Beckham-Turner is both an artist and a star.”
Sarah’s 2016 season included her New York City Opera debut as Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas for which the New York Times said, “the soprano Sarah Beckham-Turner brought a warm voice and earnestness to Rosalba,” and Opera Today said, “the excellent Sarah Beckham-Turner held her own with a rich middle voice and easy upper range.” Also in 2016, Beckham-Turner had the opportunity to sing Mabel in Pirates of Penzance in her hometown with Amarillo Opera, and she sang the Baroness in Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne with First Coast Opera.
Beckham-Turner’s 2015 season included Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with First Coast Opera in St. Augustine, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor with New York Opera Exchange, and the Verdi Requiem with West Texas A&M University. In December of 2014 Beckham-Turner had her off-Broadway debut singing Sadie in Carlisle Floyd’s first opera Slow Dusk with the Little Opera Theater of New York, for which the New York Classical Review hailed her as being “particularly strong, putting everything into her rich voice in her concluding aria.” In the summer of 2014, she performed Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Opera Saratoga where she was praised as being “soaring and lovely” and “stealing the stage.”
Sarah has performed with companies throughout the United States including, Josephine (H.MS. Pinafore) with Opera New Jersey, Fiordiligi (Cosi fan Tutte) and Desdemona (Rossini’s Otello) with Opera in the Heights, Fiordiligi and Elena (The Italian Straw Hat) with Amarillo Opera, Fiordiligi with Asheville Lyric Opera, Dew Fairy (Hansel and Gretel) with Sarasota Opera, Mimi (La Bohème) with Center City Opera Theater Philadelphia, and Frasquita (Carmen) with Lyric Opera Virginia. In addition to her operatic stage experience, Beckham-Turner also performs with the band The Opera Cowgirls, which brings the art of opera to a wider audience.
A Texas native Sarah attended Baylor University for her undergraduate degree in Music, after which she attended Boston University for her masters and the Boston University Opera Institute for her post graduate performance certificate. While at the Opera Institute she received intense training in acting, movement, language and performance, and she had the opportunity to perform main stage roles including Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Pamina in The Magic Flute, and Musetta in La Bohème. After the Opera Institute, Beckham-Turner continued her training by doing young artist apprenticeships with Lake George Opera, where she sang Eleanor Roosevelt in the premiere performance of the opera Eleanor and covered the role of Norina in Don Pasquale, and Sarasota Opera, where she covered the roles of Nedda in I Pagliacci and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and performed the Dew Fairy in Hansel und Gretel. Sarah also spent two summers as part of the prestigious Martina Arroyo Foundation Prelude to a Performance program, where she had the opportunity to perform Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi.
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