Jazmine Saunders, soprano

Soprano JAZMINE SAUNDERS, from Rochester, New York, is a second-year master’s student at The Juilliard School, where she studies with Elizabeth Bishop, and is a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. This season at Juilliard, Saunders performed as Elaine O’Neill in John Musto and Mark Campbell’s Later the Same Evening, and is covering Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito. This summer, Saunders will join the Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Singer where she will make her house debut as Shannon in the world premiere of The Righteous by Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith. There she will also cover Gianetta in L’elisir d’amore. Last summer, Saunders joined Wolf Trap Opera as a Studio Artist covering Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. Saunders is an alumna of the Eastman School of Music (BM ‘22, Voice Performance), where she performed the title role of La Calisto, The Witch in Into the Woods, The Lady with the Hand Mirror in Postcard from Morocco, and Tonina in Prima la musica e poi le parole. At Eastman, she was the 2020-22 recipient of the William Warfield Scholarship and graduated with Highest Distinction. Saunders was an Emerging Artist at Seagle Festival in 2022, where she performed as Miss Lightfoot in Fellow Travelers, Suor Osmina in Suor Angelica, and covered Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. She is also an alumna of Houston Grand Opera’s 2021 Young Artists’ Vocal Academy (YAVA). Saunders is a Top Prize Winner of the Inaugural Duncan Williams Voice Competition in the Developing Division. She received Second Place in the 2023 Gerda Lissner International Voice Competition Opera Division, and made her Carnegie Hall debut singing in the winners concert. Saunders is a New York District Winner of the 2023-24 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and an Encouragement Award recipient of the Eastern Region.