Sarah Maria Sun

Soprano

Sarah Maria Sun is known as one of the foremost and most extraordinary performers in the contemporary music scene. In addition to numerous songs, operas and oratorios, her repertoire currently includes more than 2000 compositions from the 20th and 21st centuries, including more than 400 world premieres. North German Radio (NDR) has dedicated portrait concerts to her in 2012, 2016 and 2018.

Her tremendous adaptability is demonstrated on a regular basis on the music-theater stage. She has appeared at the opera houses in Zurich, Basel, Dresden, Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Leipzig, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Zagreb, and the Opéra Bastille and the Opéra Comique in Paris. In summer 2021, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Ingo Metzmacher in a new staging by Jan Lauwers. She shows her skill for haunting theatrical and musical interpretation time and again in the depiction of complex female figures. In particular, the monodramas Yes I Will Yes by Dieter Schnebel (Elbphilharmonie Hamburg), Lohengrin by Salvatore Sciarrino (Salzburg Easter Festival), and Kolik and Queen of Hearts by Jannik Giger, Leo Hoffmann and Benjamin von Bebber (Gare du Nord Basel) are especially noteworthy. She was nominated as singer of the year by Opernwelt Magazine for the role of Elsa in Sciarrino’s Lohengrin in 2017 and for the role of Gwen in Philip Venables’ 4.48 Psychose (Semperoper Dresden) in 2019.

In the season 2024/25, Sarah Maria Sun is invited to sing concerts at the Grafenegg Festival (Nono's La fabbrica illuminata), the Festival Les Jardins Musicaux (Weill's Seven Deadly Sins, Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre), the Alte Oper Frankfurt (trio-recitals), the Konzerthaus Berlin with the Konzerthausorchester and Iván Fischer (Lieder by Kurt Weill), the Prinzregententheater Munich with the Munich Chamber Orchestra (Poppe's Augen, Berg's Lulu-Suite) as well as in Los Angeles and other Californian cities with the Camerata Pacifica (Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire i.a.). She will also perform the world premiere of Rebecca Saunders' opera Lash - Acts of Love at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, van Bebber's Queen of Hearts at De Singel Antwerp, the world premiere of Sara Glojnaric's Guides to Reality with the Kuss Quartett at the festival Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik and Amopera at the Wiener Konzerthaus with Klanforum Wien.

She regularly gives masterclasses for vocal music from the 20th and 21st centuries; for instance, at universities and conservatoires in Oslo, Harvard, Chicago, Stockholm, Zurich, Rostock, Moscow, Dresden, and Berlin. Between 2018-2022, she worked as a guest professor, tutor and lecturer at the music universities of Hannover, Graz and Lucerne. She is a professor for Contemporary Music and Open Creation at the Basel Academy of Music, Switzerland.

Sarah Maria Sun in Berlin & Witten

On 11 & 13 April 2025 the soprano Sarah Maria Sun will sing songs by Kurt Weill such as It never was you, Lied des Lotterieagenten, Bilbao Song, Die Seeräuber Jenny celebrating the composer’s anniversary at the Konzerthaus Berlin under the baton of Iván Fischer. The Konzerthausorchester will furthermore play Hanns Eisler’s Suite No. 2 op. 24, Erwin Schulhoff’s Suite for Chamber Orchestra, Paul Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher (viola: Lawrence Power) and Weill’s Suite panaméenne.

On 3 May 2025 the world premiere of Sarah Glojnarić‘s Guide to Reality will be presented at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik. This headphones-concert flips the concert scenario on its head, introducing a hybrid format that blurs art forms and detaches string quartet music from its historicity. The audience experiences a diverse mix of noisy, virtuosic rhythmic textures, electronic soundscapes, podcasts, covers ranging from Nirvana to Enno Poppe and re-sampled string quartet repertoire. Sarah Maria Sun as a conférencier, guides the audience through the performance, acting as their subconscious, confidante, enemy, and past. The Kuss Quartett will perform and Paul Hauptmeier & Martin Recker will be responsible for the sound-design and Anahí Pérez for the light-design.

Holger Falk & Sarah Maria Sun: AMOPERA

AMOPERA will be on tour in Asia in March: Following the successful premiere at the Festspielhaus Erl in November 2022, the soprano Sarah Maria Sun and the baritone Holger Falk will perform the META-Opera on 19 March 2025 at the Grand Theatre -Hong Kong Cultural Centre at the Hong Kong Arts Festival’s invitation. Further performances will take place in South Korea on 22/23 March 2025 at the Daegu Opera House . AMOPERA is a production of Klangforum Wien and the Needcompany and has been staged and choreographed by director Jan Lauwers. Tim Anderson will conduct works by Luciano Berio, Alban Berg, Harrison Birtwistle, Benjamin Britten, Peter Maxwell Davies, Beat Furrer, Sara Glojnarić, Bernhard Lang, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino, Michael Wertmüller, Iannis Xenakis and Alexander von Zemlinsky.

On 26 March 2025, Sarah Maria Sun will sing Luciano Berio‘s Folk Songs and Pierre Boulez‘s Le Marteau sans maître at the Recital Hall of Tokyo Bunka Kaikan at the invitation of the Tokyo Harusai Spring Festival. This concert will also be led by Tim Anderson and furthermore present Philippe Manoury’s Passacaille pour Tokyo as well as Pierre Boulez‘s Improvisé – pour le Dr. Kalmus.

Sarah Maria Sun: new CD Silence is golden

In March 2025, the soprano Sarah Maria Sun will release her new album SILENCE IS GOLDEN (HÄNSSLER CLASSIC). She recorded this dramedy album together with Kilian Herold (clarinet) and Jan Philip Schulze (piano) and dedicates herself to works by Schubert, Britten, Bernstein, Ligeti, Aperghis and others. The spectrum ranges from Lied and cabaret song to opera, Broadway and contemporary music. These include first recordings such as Ligeti’s ‘Mysteries of the Macabre’ in a trio version and Aperghis’ “Le rire physiologique”. ‘We have brought together very different types of humour: from cynical to bittersweet to intoxicating and many states beyond,’ says Sarah Maria Sun, describing the concept. The 70-minute recording explores the state of ‘inconsolable serenity’ with music, text and theatrical elements. For Sarah Maria Sun, there are no labels like serious and easy-listening music, only good music that is worth discovering. The trio presented this outstanding Lied programme on stage at the International Hugo-Wolf-Academy Stuttgart, the festival Heidelberger Frühling, at the Alte Oper Frankfurt and further venues to great acclaim.

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

19 March 2025, 19:30 Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Grand Theatre, Hong Kong Arts Festival
22 March 2025, 17:00 Daegu Opera House, Daegu, South Korea
23 March 2025, 15:00 Daegu Opera House, Daegu, South Korea

Programme: Amopera - a dystopic ballad

Cast: Klangforum Wien, Tim Anderson (conductor), Needcompany, Jan Lauwers (staging), Paul Blackmann (performer), Holger Falk (baritone), Maarten Seghers (performer), Sarah Maria Sun (soprano), Grace Tjang (performer)

26 March 2025, 19:00 Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Recital Hall, Tokyo Harusai Spring Festival

Programme: Philippe Manoury Passacaille pour Tokyo, Luciano Berio Folk Songs, Pierre Boulez Improvisé – pour le Dr. Kalmus, Le Marteau sans maître

Cast: Klangforum Wien, Tim Anderson (conductor), Johannes Piirto (piano), Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)

11 April 2025, 19:00
13 April 2025, 16:00
Großer Saal, Konzerthaus Berlin

Programme: Hanns Eisler Suite No. 2 op. 24, Erwin Schulhoff Suite for Chamber Orchestra, Paul Hindemith Der Schwanendreher, Kurt Weill Suite panaméenne, Selected Songs for Voice and Chamber Orchestra

Cast: Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Iván Fischer (conductor), Lawrence Power (viola), Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)

3 May 2025, 11:00 and 13:00, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik

Programme: Sarah Glojnarić Guide to Reality (World premiere)

Cast: Sara Glojnarić (concept, arrangements and co-curation), Paul Hauptmeier und Martin Recker (sound design), Anahí Pérez (light design), Alessandro Batticci (tech support for Digitaize), Kuss Quartett, Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)

11 May 2025, 19:00, Wiener Konzerthaus, Großer Saal

Programme: Amopera - a dystopian ballad; a half concertant meta opera with works by Luciano Berio, Alban Berg, Harrison Birtwistle, Benjamin Britten, Peter Maxwell Davies, Beat Furrer, Sara Glojnarić, Bernhard Lang, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino, Michael Wertmüller, Iannis Xenakis and Alexander Zemlinsky

Cast: Klangforum Wien, Tim Anderson (conductor), Needcompany, Jan Lauwers (stage director), Grace Ellen Barkey (performer), Paul Blackmann (performer), Holger Falk (baritone), Maarten Seghers (performer), Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)

20 June 2025, 18:00, World Premiere
27 June 2025, 19:30
1/11/18 July 2025, 19:30
Deutsche Oper Berlin

Programme: Rebecca Saunders Lash - Acts of Love, opera in three acts, libretto by Ed Atkins and Rebecca Saunders

Cast: Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Enno Poppe (conductor), Dead Centre (stage director), Nina Wetzel (set, costumes), Noa Frenzel, Katja Kolm, Anna Prohaska and Sarah Maria Sun (actors) a.o.

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

Silence is golden

Works by G. Gershwin, B. Britten, L. Bernstein, G. Ligeti, G. Aperghis i.a.

Hänssler, DDD (2025)
Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)
Kilian Herold (clarinet)
Jan Philip Schulze (piano)

Sara Glorjanic: Works "Pure Bliss"

Kairos (2023)
ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
Klangforum Wien
ensemble mosaik
Neue Vocalsolisten
Marin Alsop, conductor
Sarah Maria Sun, soprano a.o.