Sara Mingardo was born in Venice, where she studied at the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello under Franco Ghitti; thanks to a scholarship, she completed her studies at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. After winning several international competitions, she made her debut in 1987 in Il Matrimonio segreto (Fidalma) and in La Cenerentola (title role).

A regular guest of some of the leading Italian and international music institutions, she is one of the leading artists on today's music scene.

She collaborates regularly with conductors of the calibre of Rinaldo Alessandrini, Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, Myung Whun-Chung, Sir Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuelle Haïm, Marc Minkowski, Riccardo Muti, Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock, Maurizio Pollini, Christophe Rousset, Jordi Savall, Peter Schreier, Jeffrey Tate and with leading international orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, Academia Montis Regalis.

Her repertoire includes works by Gluck, Monteverdi, Handel, Vivaldi, Rossini, Verdi, Cavalli, Mozart, Donizetti, Schumann and Berlioz. She is particularly active in the concert field with a repertoire ranging from Bach, Beethoven and Brahms to Dvořák, Mahler, Pergolesi and Respighi.

Particularly noteworthy was the collaboration with Maestro Claudio Abbado in a working partnership that saw Sara Mingardo play a leading role on important occasions: the Lucerne Festival (Mozart's Requiem, Brahms' Rhapsody for Alto and Kindertotenlieder); Pergolesi's Kindertotenlieder and Stabat Mater in Bologna with the Mozart Orchestra; the numerous concerts at the Salzburg Festival and on Italian tours (Bologna, Modena, Jesi, Morimondo).

Winner of two Grammy Awards in 2002 for her performance as Anna in Berlioz's Les Troyens (best opera and best classical music album), in 2009 the Association of Italian Music Critics awarded her the important ‘Abbiati 2009’ Prize for her performance in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo staged at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan under the baton of Rinaldo Alessandrini.

Recent engagements include: Il Ritorno di Ulisse in patria (Penelope) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and on tour in Spain with Europa Galante; L'Orfeo by Monteverdi at the Opéra de Montecarlo and at the Salzburger Festspiele; Giulio Cesare at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, at the Opéra de Montecarlo, at the Opéra royal de Versailles, at the Wiener Staatsoper and on tour in Europe with Les Musiciens du Prince; Mozart's Requiem at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, in Philadelphia and at Carnegie Hall in New York; Pergolesi's Stabat Mater at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome; Symphony no. 9 by Beethoven at the Terme di Caracalla; Mahler's Symphony No. 3 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater on tour in the Netherlands with Philarmonie Zuidnederland.

Upcoming engagements include: Falstaff at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa; Bach's Johannes-Passion BWV 245 with La Cetra Barockorchester in Lipsia; and Giulio Cesare at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari.

February 2025