Canadian soprano Mikayla Sager is drawn ot the rich, multifaceted characters of Italian repertoire. Following her recent concert performance with San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Chronicle declared her “an extraordinarily gifted young soprano… Sager delivered Desdemona’s arias with a combination of intensity and hushed majesty.” As second-year Adler Fellow, Sager was recently seen in San Francisco Opera’s centennial season, appearing on the War Memorial mainstage as Guardian of the Temple ni Die Frau ohne Schatten, where Opera Canada noted that Sager “demands attention…[and] her rich soprano proved arresting,” Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, as Image No. 1 in Gabriela Lena Frank’s El ultimo sueño de Frida y Diego, as Sister Felicité in Dialogues des Carmélites, and covered both Violetta in La Traviata and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. Throughout the Bay area, she brings her portrayal of Mimi to performances of the San Francisco Opera’s La Bohème and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra for a concert at the Mondavi Center. In the Fall of 2024, Sager will be heard as Mimi in La Bohème again with Opera San José.
Additional concert appearances include The Future is Now, with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Eun Sun Kim Conducts Verdi, both under the baton of SFO’s new music director and Maestro Ramon Tebar. During the 2023/2024 season, Sager was heard as Inez in Il Trovatore with San Francisco Opera, Giannetta in L’Elisir d’amore, covered Eliza in Omar, and singing excerpts as Leonora from ll Trovatore and Anna Bolena in the Future is Now concert with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. As the 2022 Maria Manetti-Shrem Prize winner, Sager appeared as Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore under the baton of Maestro Gemma New. She has previously appeared as Violetta (La Traviata), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito), Micaela (Carmen), and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), as well as Pamina (Die Zauberflote) and The Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen). Following her debut as Norina (Don Pasquale) with Venture Opera, Opera Canada praised her “edgy intensity… she augmented her vocal prowess with enviable acting skills.”
Concert highlights include appearances with Festival Napa Valley, and Hawaii International Music Festival tour, as well as numerous recitals, including an appearance at Carnegie Hal, and a performance at David Geffen Hall with the New York Philharmonic.
An alumni of Manhattan School of Music, Sager was recently a semi-finalist in the 2024 Tenor Viñas Competition, the 2022 Manetti-Shrem Prize winner at Festival Napa Valley, a winner of the 2021 Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonygne Foundation’s Elizabeth Connell Competition, a Finalist for the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, a District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Vienna International Music, a Finalist in the National Opera Association’s Carolyn Bailey and Dominick Argento Competition, and was chosen as 2021 final round participant in the Gran Teatre del Liceu’s Tenor Viñas Competition in Barcelona, but unable to participate due to the pandemic.