Born in County Durham, Sarah Connolly studied piano and singing at the Royal College of Music and continues her studies with Gerald Martin Moore.

Her concert engagements include appearances at the Salzburg Festival, Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie and Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Roger Norrington, Edo de Waart and Philippe Herreweghe. She is a regular guest artist at the BBC Promenade Concerts at Royal Albert Hall and was invited to take part in the opening festival of Carnegie’s new Zankel Hall in New York. Committed to promoting new music, her world premiere performances include Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Twice through the heart’ with The Schoenberg Ensemble conducted by Oliver Knussen and Jonathan Harvey’s ‘Songs of Li Po’ at the Aldeburgh Festival.

In the 1999/2000 season, her U.S. debut in the title role of ‘Ariodante’ for the New York City Opera was hailed as an enormous success and was described in the New York Times as ‘Phenomenal…[her] voice is dark and true, remarkably flexible and filled with the required heat’. This was followed in the 2000/2001 season by her debut at the San Francisco Opera singing both Ino and Juno in ‘Semele’. She has since returned to the NYCO as Romeo in ‘I Capuleti ed i Montecchi’ and the title role of ‘Xerxes’. This season she made an acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut as Annio in ‘La clemenza di Tito’ and her Carnegie Hall recital debut in the Weill Hall.

European engagements include Nerone in ‘L’Incoronazione di Poppea’ at the Maggio Musicale in Florence and her débuts at the Paris Opera as Sesto in ‘Giulio Cesare’, the Theatre des Champs Elysées as Juno, and at the Munich Festival in the title role in ‘The Rape of Lucretia’. At English National Opera her roles include Handel's ‘Xerxes’ and ‘Ariodante’, Ruggiero ('Alcina'), Susie ('The Silver Tassie'), Ottavia ('L'Incoronazione di Poppea'), Sesto (‘La clemenza di Tito’), Dido ('Dido and Aeneas' and ‘The Trojans’), Romeo (‘I Capuleti ed i Montecchi’) and the title role in ‘The Rape of Lucretia’ which was televised for the BBC.

She recently sang the title role in ‘Giulio Cesare’ at Glyndebourne and in 2006 will make her debut at La Scala, Milan as Purcell’s Dido. In forthcoming seasons she will add to her repertoire the roles of Oktavian ('Der Rosenkavalier'), and Handel's Agrippina and Dejanira ('Hercules'). In concert, she will work with Daniel Harding in Stockholm, Dresden and Amsterdam (Mozart 'C Minor Mass' and 'Das Lied von der Erde'); Philippe Herreweghe in Amsterdam and Paris ('St Matthew Passion' and 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn'); Ivor Bolton in Salzburg (Mozart 'Requiem'); Donald Runnicles in London (Duruflé 'Requiem'), Mark Elder in Manchester ('Rückert Lieder') and perform a world premiere by Sir John Tavener at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Sarah Connolly’s recent recording of Handel arias with The Sixteen has been described as “the definition of captivating” by Classics Today. She has recorded Des Knaben Wunderhorn with L’Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Philippe Herreweghe for Harmonia Mundi and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and Haydn’s ‘Scena di Bernice’ with the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh for Deutsche Grammophon. Other recordings include Rameau's 'Les Fêtes d'Hebe' with Les Arts Florissants under William Christie for Erato (winner of the 1998 Gramophone Early Opera Award and nominated for a Grammy Award), Bach Cantatas with Collegium Vocale and Philippe Herreweghe for Harmonia Mundi, Vivaldi's 'Juditha Triumphans' with the King's Consort for Hyperion, Vaughan Williams ‘Sir John in Love’ with Richard Hickox for Chandos and a recital disc of Schönberg songs with Iain Burnside as part of the BBC Voices series.