Possessing a rich, powerful voice that evokes unmistakable echoes of opera greats such as Birgit Nilsson and Jessye Norman, Sarai Cole is an international Verdian/Wagnerian soprano and a rising star in the opera world, having won numerous awards, grants, and competitions such such as the Barry Alexander International Voice Competition at Carnegie Hall, the Long Beach Mozart Festival Competition. Ms. Cole has performed across the globe and received grants from Wagner societies across the United States and Germany, and from the Akademie der Künste. Most recently Ms. Cole performed in the spring festival for Staats Oper Stuttgart, the BAM Berliner Festival für aktuelles Musiktheater, with an experimental production called White Limozeen. She was in a masterclass with Günther Groissböck for the abridged 2020 Bayreuth Wagner Festival, and a concert with Freunde junger Künstlerinnen und Künstler. Currently Ms. Cole is working on a solo show that will feature a staged version of Wagner’s Wesendonck lieder as well as poems by women of color and will talk about the human condition of belonging. Sarai's Recital for the Wagner Society of Northern California, her Berlin Brandenburg Wagner Society stipend, as well as her Bayreuth Wagner Festival Stipendium honor, will be rescheduled in 2022.