Biography
Job Title: Senior Lecturer
Courses Taught: BA (Hons) Music (Classical)
Specialisms: Contemporary Music, Ensemble Singing, Opera, Improvisation, Composition
Soprano Sarah Dacey is a London based singer and composer, performing everything from Renaissance to the Avant-garde but specialising in contemporary repertoire.
Operatic performances include the Royal Opera House, the Tête à Tête Opera Festival, Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival, the Roundhouse, Sadler's Wells and Opera de Bauge. Concert work includes performances with the BBC Singers, Philharmonia Voices, the London Contemporary Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in Doha, the Heritage Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the LSO and the Philharmonia.
She performs with three vocal ensembles - female trio Juice Vocal Ensemble, operatic quartet Twilight Ensemble and early music group Ursula's Arrow. Performances include the Purcell Rooms, the Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, singing live on Radio 3 and Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour, broadcasts on Classic FM and 6Music and album releases with Nonclassical and Resonus Classics.
As a member of contemporary music group Riot Ensemble, Sarah has premiered works at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, King’s Place, Southbank, November Music (Holland) and the Wigmore Hall. From Autumn 2021 Riot will be Ensemble-in-residence at the Royal Academy of Music. Sarah also features on Riot's critically acclaimed album release on Deutschlandfunk, 'Song Offerings'.
As a session singer, Sarah has worked on a wild variety of projects, performing for Aphex Twin, Anna Calvi & David Byrne, 'Joy Division Reworked' and recently provided backing vocals for Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' album, 'Carnage'.
As a composer and arranger, Sarah’s music has been performed in the Wigmore Hall, the Tate Modern, the Three Choirs Festival and the Tête à Tête Opera Festival. She has written music for music theatre organisation Gestalt Arts and for the Orange Tree Theatre and was also Musical Director/Composer/Singer for a production at the National Theatre. Her music is published by UYMP and OUP.
Sarah trained at the University of York and the Royal Academy of Music.
Awards/Releases/Credits/Achievements
'Song Offerings' - Riot Ensemble, Deutschlandfunk
'Snow Queens' - Juice Vocal Ensemble, Resonus Classics
'Sliding the Same Way' - Juice Vocal Ensemble & David Thomas Broughton, Song by Toad
'Laid Bare: Love Songs' - Juice Vocal Ensemble, Nonclassical
'Songspin' - Juice Vocal Ensemble, Nonclassical
Quotes
"Full of longing, joy, and the embrace of death, sung with vivid expression by soprano Sarah Dacey" - The Guardian
"Haunting...memorable...mesmerising" - The Times
