“A song recital by the luminous American mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke is always an event…”
Opera News
Vocal Arts DC presents
Masterclass with
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Monday, Nov 3, 2025
Geroge Washington University
2:00PM
Join us for an afternoon of song as internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke leads an intimate masterclass. Known for her “rich, blooming tone and compelling stage presence” (The New York Times), Cooke brings her extensive experience from the world’s most prestigious opera houses and concert halls to work directly with the next generation of singers.
For this event, we are thrilled to be joined by four singers from the Denyce Graves Foundation. The Denyce Graves Foundation bridges the past to future by honoring overlooked musical voices and empowering the next generation of world-class artists.
As a nonprofit organization anchored at the intersection of social justice, American history, and the arts, DGF seeks to expand the public’s understanding of the rich, multicultural history of classical music by bringing the stories of our nation’s hidden musical figures to light.
MEET THE ARTISTS
SASHA COOKE, MEZZO-SOPRANO
Praised by OPÉRA MAGAZINE for her “agile, glamorous presence,” 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.
MORE ABOUT SASHA!
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 eighty symphony orchestras worldwide, frequently in the works of Mahler.
This season, she returns to Houston as Hänsel in Houston Grand Opera’s Hänsel und Gretel opposite Mané Galoyan, making her directorial debut leading the company’s family day presentation of the opera. She later joins Seattle Opera for her role debut in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen. In recital, Ms. Cooke tours her program Of Thee I Sing with pianist Myra Huang, appearing at the Kennedy Center presented by the Vocal Arts Society of D.C., Baylor University’s Distinguished Artists Series, Park Avenue Armory, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. On the concert stage, she sings Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, followed by the world premiere of Alex Turley’s the ocean’s dream of itself at the Grand Teton Music Festival, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. She joins Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem at Saratoga Performing Arts Center and appears with Baltimore Symphony, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, a signature piece of hers. She sings Handel’s Messiah with Music of the Baroque and Jane Glover, and with the Cincinnati Symphony, also conducted by Glover. She returns to the San Francisco Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Manfred Honeck, and joins the Wiener Symphoniker in Mahler’s Symphony no. 3 conducted by Petr Popelka.
Additional concert appearances include Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Sydney Symphony and Sir Donald Runnicles and Verdi’s Requiem with Detroit Symphony. She joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players for Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, which she also sings with Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonika.
These performances are external rentals presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and are not produced by the Kennedy Center.