Jazmine Saunders

Jazmine Saunders is a soprano from Rochester, New York, currently in her second year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program where she will appear as Clara in Porgy and Bess and cover the role of Lisa in La Sonnambula at the Met. During the Met’s 2024–25 season, she covered roles in Die Frau ohne Schatten and the role of Pip in the company premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick before making her company debut as Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro. Additional operatic engagements include Gilda in Rigoletto with Finger Lake Opera, covering Claire Devon in Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners at Opera Philadelphia, Shannon in the world premiere of Gregory Spears’s The Righteous and covering Giannetta in L’Elisir D’Amore at the Santa Fe Opera, and covering Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Wolf Trap Opera. On the concert stage, she performed as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with Glens Falls Symphony, Mozart’s Great Mass in C-minor with the City Choir of Washington, and in Joyce DiDonato’s Masterclass series at Carnegie Hall. Notable accolades include receiving the Audience Choice Award from Houston Grand Opera's 2024 Eleanor McCollum Competition, the Encouragement Award from the 2022 Opera Index Vocal Competition, first place in the Developing Artist Division of the 2023 Duncan Williams Voice Competition, second place in the 2023 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition (Opera Division), and New York District winner and recipient of the Encouragement Award from the Eastern Region of the Met’s 2023–24 Laffont Competition. She is an alumna of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist Program, the Wolf Trap Opera Studio, Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artists’ Vocal Academy, and the Seagle Festival Emerging Artist Program. She holds degrees in voice from the Eastman School of Music, where she received the William Warfield Scholarship and graduated with Highest Distinction, and the Juilliard School, where she was a recipient of the Kovner Fellowship.