Opera / Music theatre: 

Ali N Askin The killer in me is the killer in you my love (Hanna; WP)
Alban Berg Lulu (Lulu)
Luciano Berio Passaggio (Sequenza III)
Leonard Bernstein Candide (Cunegonde), Trouble in Tahiti (Dinah), A quiet place (Dede), West Side Story (Maria)
Nicolaus Brass Ein Sommertag (Young woman; WP)
Peter Maxwell Davis Miss Donnithorne´s Maggot (Miss Donnithorne)
Peter Eötvös Der Goldene Drache (Young Chinese)
Arnulf Herrmann Wasser (Katja; WP)
Michael Hirsch, Elena Mendoza, J.M. Sanchez-Verdù Visiones Vicciones (4 Soprano parts)
Rolf Riehm Sirenen – Bilder des Begehrens und des Vernichtens (Sirene 1/mermaid 1)
Peter Ruzicka Hölderlin (Soprano I)
José-Maria Sanchez-Verdù Aura (Aura; WP)
Dieter Schnebel Yes I will (Molly Bloom; WP), Utopien (Soprano WP)
Salvatore Sciarrino Infinito Nero (Maria Maddalena)
Thomas Stiegler Prinzessin Ulla und die Schöne Lau (Princess Ulla)
Oscar Strasnoy Geschichte (Mother)
Johann Strauß Die Fledermaus (Adele)
Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (Sophie)
Igor Stravinsky The Rake´s Progress (Anne Truelove)
Kurt Weill The Seven Deadly Sins (Anna), The Threepenny Opera (Polly, Jenny)
Jörg Widmann Das Gesicht im Spiegel (Patrizia)

Concert (selection):

Georges Aperghis Septes Crimes de l’amour, Cinq couplets, Contretemps, Le rire physiologique
Luciano Berio Laborynthus, Folk-Songs, Sinfonia, Air
Pierre Boulez Pli selon Pli
Nikolaus Brass Sommertag (WP), Der Goldene Steig (WP), Stimme und Tod (WP)
Benjamin Britten Folksongs, Cabaret-Songs
John Cage Forever and sunsmell, The wonderful widow of eighteen springs
Unsuk Chin Akrostichon
Luigi Dallapiccola Divertimento
Hanns Eisler Palmström op. 5
Beat Furrer Fama
Gérard Grisey Quatre Chants pour franchir le seuil
Georg Friedrich Haas Atthis
Karl Amadeus Hartmann Friede anno 48
Hans-Werner Henze Being Beateous
Paul Hindemith Melancholie (WP), Marienleben
Heinz Holliger à plume éperdue (WP), Dämmerlicht, Increschantüm (WP), Adieu pour P.B. (UA), Grignan (WP)
Peter Kyburz still and again
Helmut Lachenmann Got Lost
Bernhard Lang Cold Trip I (WP), Songbook II (WP), Hermetica V (WP)
György Ligeti Aventures, Nouvelles Aventures, Der Sommer
Bruno Mantovani Cantata
Peter Maxwell-Davis Miss Donnithorne´s Maggot, The Telephone
Olivier Messiaen Harawi
Isabel Mundry Vogelherd (WP)
Sarah Nemtsov TOV (WP)
Luigi Nono Canti di Vita e d´amore, La Fabbrica Illuminata
Samir Odeh-Tamimi Namì
Matthias Pintscher Lieder und Schneebilder
Alberto Posadas La tentación de las sombras (WP)
Aribert Reimann Ni una sombra
Rolf Riehm Der Asra
Wolfgang Rihm Ophelia Sings
Peter Ruzicka Streichquartett VI, Mnemosyne (WP)
José-Maria Sanchez-Verdù Gramma, Atlas (WP)
Salvatore Sciarrino Due Melodie, Canto degli specchi, Lohengrin
Johannes Schöllhorn Pierrot Lunnaire, Damenstimmen, strong>, Va…
Arnold Schönberg Streichquartett II, Das Buch der hängenden Gärten op.15, Cabaret-Songs, Erwartung, Herzgewächse, Pierrot Lunaire (Pierrot Lunaire)
Claude Vivier Ojikawa, Hymnen an die Nacht, Hierophanie
Jörg Widmann Versuch über die Fuge

3 June 2023, 20:00, WDR Funkhaus am Wallrafplatz, Cologne

Programme: Michael Hersch Medea (world premiere)

Cast: Ensemble Musikfabrik, Schola Heidelberg, Bas Wiegers (conductor), Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)

13 June 2023, 20:00, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Haus Fuhr, Essen

Programme: Franz Schubert Der Hirt auf dem Felsen D 965, George Gershwin The Man I love, Benjamin Britten Cabaret Songs, György Ligeti Mysteries of the Macabre, Drei Lieder, Három József Attila-dal, Erinnerung (UA), Georges Aperghis Le rire physiologique, Leonard Bernstein What a movie, Franz Schubert Abschied von der Erde D 829

Cast: Kilian Herold (saxophone), Jan-Philip Schulze (piano),Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)

1 July 2023, 20:00, Pierrot Populaire – Eine Mondfahrt, E-Werk Freiburg

Programme: Works by Arnold Schönberg, Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, Max Kowalski,
King Harvest, Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn and Mike Oldfield

Cast: Ensemble Recherche, Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)

30 July 2023, 21:09, Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker, VERDO concert hall
22 August 2023, 20:00, Les Jardins Musicaux, La Grange aux Concerts, Cernier

Programme: Killer Instincts – Songs and Lieder by Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Franz Schubert, Alan Price, Stephen Sondheim and more; Texts by Jim Clayburgh

Cast: Sarah Maria Sun (soprano), The Gurks: Jan-Philip Schulze (piano, electric organ), Hubert Steiner (hawaii-, jazz-, acoustic-, steelstring-guitars, banjo), Bernd Oezsevim (drums), Paul Kleber (e-bass, double bass)

7 September, 19:30, Lucerne Festival, KKL Lucerne

Programme: Enno Poppe Öl für Ensemble, Augen. 25 Lieder für Sopran und Kammerorchester (Schweizer UA), György Ligeti Concerto for violin

Cast: Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth (conductor), Isabelle Faust (violin), Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)

Killer Instincts

Killer Instincts is, in a manner of speaking, a politically incorrect perpetrators’ study. And it is satirizing the new generation of fascist politicians, who swagger about clear enemy images and simple solutions and became a horrible new fashion. For this purpose, I assembled cynical, black-humorous monologues. The narrators of these monologues are stupid, selfish, spineless, lazy, greedy, corrupt, cold blooded, clever, charismatic, shrewd and charming narcissists, who twist us – just like in real life – around their little fingers. Their recipes for a perfectly successful life are obviously immoral, but we are, nevertheless, inevitably seduced into identifying with these enchanting beasts. We want to be like them. We want to laugh with them (not be laughed at). Therefore, we live with them in partnership. Or work for them. Or even vote for them. Not much good coming out of this…

Interestingly, such monologues are hard to find in classical music (which is my actual habitat). That’s why I decided not to care about genres, boxes or gender questions and only go for the contents, the meat. So now very different composers and librettists shake hands for this programme. We have gathered a weird mixture of enormously diverse songs from the classical repertoire and contemporary music, from musical, pop and rock.

So, Killer Instincts shall render both first aid if you badly need to laugh or cry or get the hell scared about the human nature. It is also a pleasurable journey in bad people’s shoes. Which might be a (vanishingly small) drop of help to act more conscious and responsible in our „best of all possible worlds”.

(source: Sarah Maria Sun)

Cast:
Sarah Maria Sun (vocals)
Jan Philip Schulze (piano, electric organ)
Hubert Steiner (Hawaii-, Jazz-, Acoustic-, Steel String-Guitars, Banjo, E-Bass)
Bernd Oezsevim (percussion)
Paul Kleber (bass player)

Programme selection:
Tom Waits Lucky Day Overture
Leonard Bernstein There’s a law about men
Joe Walsh Life’s been good
John Kander When you’re good to Mama
Kurt Weill Der Lotterieagent
Steven Lutvak I don’t understand the poor
Richard Adler A little brains, a little talent
and further works by Kurt Weill, Stephen Sondheim, Franz Schubert i.a.

Killer Instincts will be released on CD in March 2020 on the label mode records, New York City in cooperation with the BR Studio Munich, Germany (recorded 2019).

Dieter Schnebel Yes, I will, Yes (adapted from James Joyce) 

is a monodrama for soprano and percussion based on Molly Bloom’s soliloquy at the end of the novel “Ulysses”, by James Joyce. The text is 80 pages long, without full stops or commas: the protagonist’s night-time thoughts – and highly sexual fantasies. The piece is dedicated to soprano Sarah Maria Sun, who will be interpreting these thoughts – partly spoken, partly masterfully sung. The accompaniment consists of a percussion part (mainly vibraphone) and a playback track. This consists of a second voice (also Sarah Maria Sun), as well as synthetic and vocal background sounds. Additionally, Joyce’s entire text is spoken throughout by Sarah Sun (duration approx. 2.5 hours) played at four times the speed, producing a kind of artificial chirping, which contains the whole text.
The piece is a hymn to life, affirmative as it says at the end: “Yes, I Will, Yes!”

(source: Dieter Schnebel)

Cast:
Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)
Vanessa Porter (percussion)
Axel Schäffler (video)

Duration: 60 minutes

„modern lied“

When New Music respectively „modern lied“ are achieved so skillfully and devotedly in various colours and languages, it of course indicates a passion of the interpreters, but it also raises the desire to open up to and confront oneself with it. (Dresdner Neue Nachrichten, 11 June 2017)

The two artists had the idea to this project during breakfast after their first concert together. The accomplished vocal artist of contemporary music Sarah Maria Sun and the experienced pianist Jan Philip Schulze wanted to develop a programme presenting the most extraordinary contemporary lied masterworks. It aimed to be beautiful and at the same time challenging for the artists.

This idea resulted in the vocal programme modern lied, which combines all these aspects and presents an enormous range of composers, such as Heinz Holliger, Salvatore Sciarrino, Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, Wolfgang Rihm, Bernhard Lang, and Georges Asperghis. The release concert of the recently published CD modern lied took place at the Semperoper Dresden in June 2017.

Cast:
Sarah Maria Sun (Soprano)
Jan Philip Schulze (piano)

Programme selection:
Heinz Holliger Sechs Lieder nach Christian Morgenstern (1952-1953)
Salvatore Sciarrino Zwei Melodien (1978)
Helmut Lachenmann Got Lost (2007/08)
György Kurtág Requiem für den Geliebten, op. 26 (1982-1987)
Wolfgang Rihm Ophelia Sings (2012)
Bernhard Lang Wenn die Landschaft aufhört (2015)

Sarah Maria Sun’s recent album, “Killer Instincts,” could be a soundtrack for our times.

Whether Sun is performing a selection from Leonard Bernstein’s “Trouble in Tahiti” or a Stefan Wolpe tune from 1930 that laments Hitler’s rising political fortunes, she musters a stylish way of singing about bleak times.

Bernstein’s writing for the stage results in another highlight for Sun. Her performance of “Glitter and Be Gay” (from “Candide”) contains a banjo-led arrangement you never knew you needed. The twangy instrumental accompaniment and Sun’s coloratura brilliance are equally refined; together, they mock putative distinctions between “high” and “low” cultural practices with an energy that any satirist could admire.
The New York Times, Seth Colter Walls, 28 May 2020

Soprano Sarah Maria Sun shines with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at the Elbphilharmonie

(…) With the swaying certainty and elegance of an equilibrist, the singer – with a pink-coloured skirt and a black top also an optical sensation – masters the vocal acrobatics of the piece. Ruzicka leads the voice in his Hölderin-score for soprano, 18 strings and percussion with far reaching steps to dizzying heights. However with Sarah Maria Sun it never sounded like cold sweat and exhausting exercises, but always wonderful, simple and effortless. With a clear, bright sound she repealed the laws of musical gravity and breezed up to the three-line octave, only to shortly after descend into the warm chest register and eloquently explore the poetic charm of Hölderlin’s works.
Hamburger Abendblatt, 8 May 2017

Sturminger, who had recently and on short notice been entrusted with the new production of “Jedermanns” at the Salzburger Festspiele, shows a monologue of a schizophrenic. In a posh loft with sea view a woman quietly talks, either as Elsa or – hat on – as Lohengrin. This is the result of someone carried away, disappointed and isolated. And Sarah Maria Sun masters the grand art to not once drift into a pathological cliché. A virtuoso of pianissimo, whose quick eruptions turn into pinprick-attacks.
merkur.de, 11 April 2017

Sarah Maria Sun has good reasons to laugh. The soprano is one of the shooting stars of modern music. It even happens that she is described as a “high-performance soprano”: Sarah Maria Sun, coloratura soprano and long-standing first soprano of the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, is worldwide in great demand as interpreter of contemporary music.
ndr.de, 10 May 2016

 […] the extraordinarily expressive soprano Sarah Maria Sun. […] Sun’s voice ranged from a stratospheric pianissimo to a guttural growl that sounded as if all the evils in the universe were pouring from her throat.
The Guardian, 24 November 2013

Audio recordings:

Biography Sarah Maria Sun 22/23 102.69 KB

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Repertoire Sarah Maria Sun - EN 98.54 KB

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Website:
www.sarahmariasun.de

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