Sarah Dacey studied at the University of York and the Royal Academy of Music with John Potter and Alison Pearce. She performs with the BBC Singers, Philharmonia Voices, The Octandre Ensemble, Okeanos Ensemble and the Oriel Quartett. An advocate of new music, Sarah has worked with many of today’s finest composers including Anna Meredith, Paul Mealor, Gavin Bryars, Errollyn Wallen, Duncan MacLeod, Mica Levi and Dai Fujikura. She has sung in countless UK premieres including those of Stockhausen’s Litanie and Xenakis’ Idmen and performed in the Macedonian premiere of Xenakis’ Nuits.
Recent performance projects include singing at the Oliver Knussen Convention at the Guildhall, John Adams’ opera Nixon in China at the BBC Proms 2012 and in the Berlin Philharmonie, performing the entire Songbooks of John Cage, being a member of the Remote Orchestra in a rare Aphex Twin concert at the Barbican, collaborating with viola da gamba player Liam Byrne, providing a live score to Hitchcock’s silent film Champagne and performing new pieces by young composers with the Red Note Ensemble in the Sound Festival in Scotland.
Sarah is a member of the critically acclaimed Juice Vocal Ensemble, a female a cappella trio specialising in contemporary music. They have performed in many prestigious venues such as the Purcell Rooms, the Wigmore Hall, the Roundhouse, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. John’s Smith Square, Handel House Museum, the BFI and the Latitude Festival. They’ve been broadcast on Radio 3’s The Choir, Hear and Now, live on Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour and have received broadcasts on NYC radio and in San Francisco. International appearances include the Tampere Vocal Festival in Finland, La Comete in Châlons-en-Champagne, Settimana di Musica Sacra in Florence, the Spor Festival in Denmark and the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. As well as commissioning new works, juice also compose for themselves. Sarah’s own arrangement of a traditional ballad, Cruel Mother, was described by the Daily Telegraph as “musically ingenious” and features on their debut album on the Nonclassical label. Songspin recently won the ‘Best Contemporary Classical Album’ category in the Independent Music Awards. Their second album is released late 2013, their 10th Anniversary year, followed by a celebratory concert at King’s Place.
Sarah has been involved in numerous educational projects with juice including being artists-in-residence at York University and Ulster University. They’ve run workshops and masterclasses in composition and performance at Queen’s University Belfast, Dartington College of Arts, Royal Holloway, Cardiff University, Leicester University, Hull University and Leeds College of Music. They were on the Live Music Now! scheme for many years, performing in special needs schools, care homes and hospitals and running composition and singing workshops for young people. Sarah also teaches singing at Junior Trinity Greenwich and at Shrewsbury House School.