Filipino-American soprano Sarah Rachel Bacani is currently the soprano Resident Artist at Toledo Opera, where she recently performed the role of Micaëla (Carmen) and is slated to appear again later this season in the role of Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore). She recently appeared on the Lakes Area Music Festival stage singing the role of the Dew Fairy in Hänsel und Gretel, in which she also covered the role of Gretel. A former member of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program at Central City Opera, she made her professional debut there as Mariola in Heggie’s Two Remain and went on to both cover and perform (in their Family Matinee production) the role of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette). Previous roles with the Indiana University Opera Theater include Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte). 

An accomplished competitor, she recently won third place in the Fort Worth Opera McCammon Voice Competition and placed in the Top 12 of the Inaugural Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition. She previously 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. 

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, New Jersey, Ms. Bacani received her Performer Diploma and Master of Music at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied under the tutelage of Jane Dutton. She received her Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Cynthia Hoffmann.