LATROBE, PA—The Saint Vincent College Concert Series will kick off the fall semester Friday, Sept. 15, with a voice recital from Sarah Richards, a soprano and early music specialist. The concert will begin at 7 p.m. in the Basilica Crypt.
This program of early Baroque music features works that have shaped and influenced today’s classical music landscape. Works will include 16th, 17th and 18th century composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi and Johann Sebastian Bach. Ms. Richards will be accompanied by Mr. J. Christopher Pardini, Director of the Saint Vincent College Concert Series and Instructor of Keyboard and Music Theory in the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, on the harpsichord.
Moving effortlessly from Renaissance and Baroque classics to contemporary opera and “new music,” soprano Sarah Richards demonstrates an enviable command of multiple periods and genres.
She has recently performed the role of “Un Bergère” in Brooklyn Telemann Chamber Society’s film production of Rameau’s Phèdre: Hippolyte et Aricie, set to release in January 2024, and “Young Artist” at Duke Chapel under the direction of Dr. Philip Cave, as well as the soprano soloist in Fauré’s Requiem in D Minor and Pergolesi’s challenging Stabat Mater. This summer, Ms. Richards portrayed the roles of “Drusilla”/“Virtù”/“Liberto” in Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at Miami Beach Classical Music Festival and performed André Campra’s cantata Enée et Didon at Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival’s Virginia Baroque Academy. Other operatic roles include “La Musica” in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and “Amore”/”Damigella” in another production of L’incoronazione di Poppea under the direction of Avi Stein and Sigrid T’Hooft. She has also sung the roles of “Aldimira” in Franceso Cavalli’s L’Erismena at Amherst Early Music Festival under the direction of Julianne Baird and Richard Stone and “Euridice” in a concert version of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at East End Song Studio. Ms. Richards also frequently performs newly-composed works including Glenn Rudolph’s Children of the Seraphim and is a professional core member of the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh.
Ms. Richards also promotes the performance of sacred Baroque music as one of the founding members of the vocal trio Halcyon Voices. Based currently in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, she studied with Steven Rickards and Dana Marsh at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she earned her master’s degree in Early Music Voice.
PHOTO: Sarah Richards