Sara Jobin
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photo credit: Joey Wharton and Rachel Boxley
Bio
Sara Jobin is the former Chief Conductor of the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York (2011-2022), simultaneously Resident Conductor of the Toledo Symphony and Associate Conductor of the Toledo Opera for three years.
Her home company was San Francisco Opera, where she started as a prompter, quickly rising to rehearsal conductor, staff conductor, then making history as the first woman to conduct subscription performances on the mainstage. After leading seven performances of four different productions at San Francisco Opera, plus two complete out-of-house productions, she began a freelance career that has included a Disney Hall premiere with Roomful of Teeth and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Los Angeles Opera’s Broad Stage in a co-production with CCO; Arizona Opera where she conducted three performances of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman with no rehearsal; Edmonton Symphony, Szeged Opera House (Szegedi Szimfonikus Zenekar), Armel Opera Festival in Avignon, Bochum Symphoniker, Pittsburgh Opera (Young Artists), Opera San José, Calgary Opera and Ballet, MANCA Festival in Nice, Orchestra of St. Luke’s children’s concerts, Symphony Silicon Valley, Dayton Philharmonic, Opera Santa Barbara, Wolf Trap Opera (live recording nominated for a Grammy), Opera Idaho for a series that spanned a decade, Opera Carolina, OperaDelaware, Anchorage Opera, and more.
Admittedly fed up with opera plots where women so often die to sustain the patriarchy, Jobin has consistently championed contemporary American works. She has given the world premieres of four American operas including one by Mohican composer Brent Michael Davids, with sixteen additional American operas in her repertoire. Carnegie Hall Live broadcast a duet from Derrick Wang’s bipartisan comedy Scalia/Ginsburg in 2020 under her baton, in their tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Jobin delights in out-of-the-box projects, particularly those with a cross-cultural focus, sometimes acting as producer. She led the Bach B Minor Mass with an international ensemble at Dachau to honor Noor Inayat Khan. Much of covid was spent producing online interfaith musical events for the Inayatiyya Music Activity. Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem with Albany Pro Musica in the superlative acoustics of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall was a highlight after personally training the chorus. She workshopped The Little Rock Nine, libretto by Thulani Davis and music by Bernadette Speach, commemorating their important moment in American history; Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s paean to democracy in her native Iran, We, the Innumerable; and Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, an uplifting opera - uniting women behind and without the veil.
Jobin attended Harvard at 16, where as a Leonard Bernstein Scholar she graduated with highest honors on her thesis MAESTRA, and top cash prizes, from both departments of a double major. The John Knowles Paine Fellowship funded initial conducting studies at the Pierre Monteux School, and from there she continued her education in the opera house: four years at Opera San José was followed by five years as fulltime music staff at San Francisco Opera. Around the corner from the opera house, she was a member of the gospel choir at Glide Memorial Church and can be heard on the soundtrack of The Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith.
Jobin woke up to the climate crisis in 2006 and produced a “Global Warming Cabaret” in 2007. Through an Opera America Innovation Grant awarded to the Center for Contemporary Opera, she hosted the panel discussion on environmental sustainability on the Opera America website. Her own website includes a page of climate resources for classical music professionals.
February 2025
Her home company was San Francisco Opera, where she started as a prompter, quickly rising to rehearsal conductor, staff conductor, then making history as the first woman to conduct subscription performances on the mainstage. After leading seven performances of four different productions at San Francisco Opera, plus two complete out-of-house productions, she began a freelance career that has included a Disney Hall premiere with Roomful of Teeth and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Los Angeles Opera’s Broad Stage in a co-production with CCO; Arizona Opera where she conducted three performances of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman with no rehearsal; Edmonton Symphony, Szeged Opera House (Szegedi Szimfonikus Zenekar), Armel Opera Festival in Avignon, Bochum Symphoniker, Pittsburgh Opera (Young Artists), Opera San José, Calgary Opera and Ballet, MANCA Festival in Nice, Orchestra of St. Luke’s children’s concerts, Symphony Silicon Valley, Dayton Philharmonic, Opera Santa Barbara, Wolf Trap Opera (live recording nominated for a Grammy), Opera Idaho for a series that spanned a decade, Opera Carolina, OperaDelaware, Anchorage Opera, and more.
Admittedly fed up with opera plots where women so often die to sustain the patriarchy, Jobin has consistently championed contemporary American works. She has given the world premieres of four American operas including one by Mohican composer Brent Michael Davids, with sixteen additional American operas in her repertoire. Carnegie Hall Live broadcast a duet from Derrick Wang’s bipartisan comedy Scalia/Ginsburg in 2020 under her baton, in their tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Jobin delights in out-of-the-box projects, particularly those with a cross-cultural focus, sometimes acting as producer. She led the Bach B Minor Mass with an international ensemble at Dachau to honor Noor Inayat Khan. Much of covid was spent producing online interfaith musical events for the Inayatiyya Music Activity. Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem with Albany Pro Musica in the superlative acoustics of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall was a highlight after personally training the chorus. She workshopped The Little Rock Nine, libretto by Thulani Davis and music by Bernadette Speach, commemorating their important moment in American history; Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s paean to democracy in her native Iran, We, the Innumerable; and Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, an uplifting opera - uniting women behind and without the veil.
Jobin attended Harvard at 16, where as a Leonard Bernstein Scholar she graduated with highest honors on her thesis MAESTRA, and top cash prizes, from both departments of a double major. The John Knowles Paine Fellowship funded initial conducting studies at the Pierre Monteux School, and from there she continued her education in the opera house: four years at Opera San José was followed by five years as fulltime music staff at San Francisco Opera. Around the corner from the opera house, she was a member of the gospel choir at Glide Memorial Church and can be heard on the soundtrack of The Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith.
Jobin woke up to the climate crisis in 2006 and produced a “Global Warming Cabaret” in 2007. Through an Opera America Innovation Grant awarded to the Center for Contemporary Opera, she hosted the panel discussion on environmental sustainability on the Opera America website. Her own website includes a page of climate resources for classical music professionals.
February 2025