Filipino-American soprano Sarah Rachel Bacani is very excited to make her Lakes Area Music Festival debut singing the role of Dew Fairy and covering Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel. Following her LAMF debut, she is slated for two role debuts in Toledo Opera’s 2025-2026 season, first as Micaëla (Carmen) and then as Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore, in which she will also cover the role of Adina.
She is currently the soprano Resident Artist at Toledo Opera where she performs the role of Adèle / Spirit of the Rose in their touring outreach production of Grétry’s Beauty and the Beast and previously performed as Liat in South Pacific.
A former member of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program at Central City Opera, she covered the role of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), also performing the role in their Family Matinee production. There, she also gave a recital as part of their “Lunch & A Song” series. The season prior, also with Central City Opera, she made her professional debut performing the role of Mariola in Heggie’s Two Remain.
She has performed extensively on the Indiana University Opera Theater stage, singing the roles of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte). Scene work at IU includes Leïla (Les Pécheurs de Perles), Micaëla (Carmen), and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte).
An accomplished competitor, she was named a finalist for Fort Worth Opera’s
McCammon Voice Competition and placed in the Top 12 of the Inaugural Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition this past year. Previously, she competed as a finalist for the 2024 Young Patronesses of the Opera / Florida Grand Opera National Voice Competition, placing sixth (Kay Carpenter Memorial Award) and winning the Irene Patti Swartz Memorial Award to a Soprano. She was also a semi-finalist for the 2024 Shreveport Opera Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition and the second-place winner of the 2023 National Society of Arts and Letters Indiana Chapter Competition, having previously won the organization’s Pock and Blumberg Merit Award in 2022. In concert, Ms. Bacani has performed the soprano solo in Britten's Les Illuminations, Mozart’s Requiem, and Getty’s The White Election.
Hailing from Toms River, NJ, Ms. Bacani received her Performer Diploma and Master of Music in Voice at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied under the tutelage of Jane Dutton. She received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Cynthia Hoffmann.