Dramatic soprano Sarah Ashcroft VandenBrink is an American performer, educator, researcher, and music director. As a native of Holland, Michigan she has recently returned to West Michigan after completing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance and Literature and a minor in Vocal Pedagogy from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she also received her Master’s of Music.

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In college, Sarah double majored in Vocal Performance and Vocal Music Education. Equally passionate about both callings, she moved to Philadelphia, PA to complete her student teaching at the prominent Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School. While in Philadelphia, Sarah coached with Donald St. Pierre at the Curtis Institute of Music, which led to her participation in the renowned Chautauqua Voice Summer Program.

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As an avid performer, Sarah has made a home on the stage. Her recent theatre credits include Anna Maurrant in Street Scene (Weill), Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites (Poulenc), Lady Billows in Albert Herring (Britten), Mrs. Grose in Turn of the Screw (Britten), High Priestess in Aïda (Verdi), Gerhilde in Die Walküre (Wagner) and Fourth Maid in Elektra (Strauss). She also sang Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with the Holland Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in numerous National Association of Teachers of Singing Voice Competitions, receiving first place regularly at both the State and Regional levels. Sarah also competed in the Opera Grand Rapids Collegiate Vocal Competition (now known as the VanderLaan Prize) becoming a finalist in 2010, and winning first place in 2011. That same year, she was also awarded the Sakiko Kanamori Prize.

 

Her research is dedicated to forgotten women composers, and she has focused her energies on reviving the vocal works of 19th century German composers Emilie Mayer. An anthology of Mayer’s Lieder, which included newly engraved copies of 12 of her songs in tandem with word-for-word translations, poetic translations, and IPA transcriptions, is under contract and will be published with the Hildegard Publishing Company. Release date coming soon. 

 

When neither teaching nor singing, Sarah runs a successful online vintage shop on Etsy and goes for long walks with her husband and two dogs.