Name: Sara Ptak

From: Peru, Illinois

My inspiration: Benita Valente, Karina Gauvin, Joni Mitchell, Patty Griffin, Indigo Girls, H.E.R., Amos Lee, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Phoebe Bridgers, Raffi, Laurie Berkner

Education: DePaul University, BM, Voice Performance; McGill University, MM, Opera Performance

I play and teach: Voice

Personal Teaching Statement: My teaching style is strength based and led by curiosity and play. With both children and adults, I take time to notice what they’re already doing well and build awareness and confidence around that. From that place of confidence, we can build on those skills and create a solid foundation that really honors the whole student exactly where they are.

Biography: Sara Ptak, soprano and Brooklynite (by way of rural Illinois), has her Masters of Music from McGill University with a Bachelors degree from DePaul University. On the operatic stage she has performed roles such as Cleopatra in “Giulio Cesare” and Giulietta in “I Capuleti e i Montecchi,” Gretel in “Hansel and Gretel,” Susanna in “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Lauretta in “Gianni Schicchi,” Juno in Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo,” Pamina in “The Magic Flute,” Donna Elvira in “Don Giovanni” and Almirena in Handel’s “Rinaldo.”

Sara has been a fellow at The Toronto Summer Music Festival studying under Elly Ameling and Julius Drake, The Schubert Institut (Baden bei Wien, Austria) with the likes of Helmut Deutsche, Robert Holl, and Bernarda Fink, Music nelle Marche (Urbania, Italy), Domaine Forget (Saint Irenee, Quebec) with Renata Scotto, The Aspen Music Festival and School and Brevard Music Center.

A passionate teaching artist, Sara performed the roles of Papagena, Third Lady in “The Magic Flute” and Gretel in “Hansel and Gretel” with Martina Arroyo’s opera outreach program. She has since founded Mozart Had A Sister, a recital series centering underrepresented composers and performers in Brooklyn, NY. Her children’s show “Miss Sara’s Music Room,” focusing on social and emotional learning through song, is coming to YouTube in Winter 2021.