Sara Di Bella

 

She started very young her musical studies with the piano, reaching the 5th year grade diploma at the conservatory "A.Scontrino" of Trapani. Then, recognized the vocal qualities, she started her vocal studies studying with Nemi Bertagni and several teachers, including Simone Alaimo. She got the Bachelor Degree in opera performance at "A.Scontrino" Conservatory (Italy), working with the Clementi Award Winner Antonio Piricone, and a Bachelor Degree in musicology at Palermo University (Italy), both with highest grades. In 2016 she got a Master Degree in Musical Performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (Trinity College - Dublin) with Sylvia O' Regan.

She was the only winner of singing section of "Prize of the Arts 2007" organized by Department of Education and Science among all the Italian conservatories. After this, she attended the "Academy of High improving in Operatic singing" in the years 2008-09 and 2011-12 with the famous baritone Simone Alaimo and with soprano Vittoria Mazzoni. In 2011 she attended a masterclass with the pianist Bruno Canino, expert in the repertoire of the Twentieth Century.

 

She started singing in choirs and ensembles when she was nine years old and she performed: Carmina Burana by Orff, Ramirez's Misa Criolla, Missa Luba with the griot singer Badara Seck, Mendelssohn's Motets op.39, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater (recorded with Simone Alaimo as one of the soloists), Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Borodin's Polovetsian Dances, Theodorakis' Zorba the Greek. In 2012 she went on tour with the JSBEnsemble (International Bachakademie - Stuttgart) singing the J. S. Bach's B minor Mass under the baton of Helmut Rilling. She's an active member of Anúna since 2012 and she was touring Canada, Holland, Belgium, Canary Islands, Japan and England with them. In Japan in 2014 she performed in Japanese the main theme of the Miyazaki movie “Princess Mononoke” and she was applauded from the sound engineers of the Studio Ghibli, the same ones that worked on the soundtrack for the anime movie “Princess Mononoke”. This version is now in “Revelation”, the last album released by Anúna. In 2016 she was selected to be part of the TENSO Europe Chamber Choir, singing and performing under the baton of Kaspars Putninš and Paul Hillier. In 2017 she was part of a great project where Anúna sang for a unique performance of Nō theatre with Rokuro Gensho Umewaka (Cultural Japanese Heritage) in Bunkamura Orchard Hall (Tokyo). In Japan with Anúna she recorded four tracks composed by Yasunori Mitsuda for Nintendo Game "Xenoblade Chronicles II". She is going to sing for the 2017 edition of TENSO European Chamber choir this summer.

 

As a soloist, she performed the following works: Britten's Ceremony of Carols, Saint-Saëns' Christmas Oratory, Orff's Carmina Burana. In 2008 and 2009 she participated to many concerts with M° Gianluca Lastraioli, performing Baroque and Reinassance music, with the collaboration of "Suona Francese Barocco" and the French Embassy. In 2009 she performed many concerts performing arias of operatic repertoire at the Municipal Theatre of Racalmuto (Ag), at the Auditorium RAI of Palermo and at the Municipal Theatre of Benevento. In 2011 she performed the Soprano soloist in the concert-cantata Buxtehude's Membra Iesu Nostri directed by the world-renowned harpsichordist Fabio Bonizzoni, recorded by the Vatican Radio. In May 2014 she performed Blackford's Mirror of Perfection with Bray Choral Society, Bach's Magnificat and Handel's Utrecht Te Deum with Wicklow Choral Society. In May 2015 she was involved in the project “Responses to Pierrot Lunaire” featuring pieces from Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and new pieces written by composition students of the RIAM: all was performed with the ALLUNA Ensemble. In September 2015 she was part of the project “Electrica Carmina Medievalia” with Gianluca Lastraioli performing medieval pieces with rock intstruments (two electric guitars, bass guitar, keyboard and drums). In November 2015 she performed “Music for 18 musicians” by Steve Reich at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, under the baton of Remy Durupt and with the choreographies by Sylvain Groud.

 

She started her theatrical experience as an opera chorister performing the following operas:

Bizet's Carmen in 2005; Puccini's La Bohème, Verdi's Aida and Mozart's Così Fan Tutte in 2006; Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana in 2010; Puccini's Tosca, Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Verdi's La Traviata in 2011.

In those occasions she had the opportunity to work with conductors like Roberto Tolomelli, Steven Mercurio, Michael Laus, Reynald Giovanninetti, Massimiliano Stefanelli and with directors like Damiano Michieletto, Wolfram Kremer, Mario Corradi, Michal Znaniecki, Natale de Carolis. She also attended classes with the famous soprano Magda Olivero.

 

She debuted her first opera role in 2004 singing Gaio in Britten's The little Sweep, followed by other roles: Sem in Britten's Noye's Fludde; the little soprano in Puccini's La Rondine. In 2008 she performed Nella in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and She in Rota's La Notte di un Nevrastenico at the Manoel Theatre in Malta; in 2009 she played the role of Auretta in Mozart's L'Oca del Cairo. In January 2014 she performed the main role in Janáček's opera "The Cunning Little Vixen" in Samuel Beckett's Theatre in Dublin (RIAM production). In March 2015 she was applauded as Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica’s RIAM production (Opera Magazine “---and Sara Di Bella as a chirpy, independent Genovieffa”), Abbey Theatre.

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