Cindy Sadler
Founder + Executive Director
cindy@spotlightonopera.com
Cindy Sadler is an artistic entrepreneur whose professional life encompasses a career as an arts administrator, contralto, writer, educator, and stage director. She is the founder and Executive Director of Spotlight on Opera and the Marketing and Communications Manager for Florida Grand Opera.
Cindy’s career in arts administration has always gone hand-in-hand with performing. She founded Spotlight on Opera in 2006 and grew it from a one-week opera camp to a five-week artistic entrepreneurship program focused on offering artists of all ages and background the opportunity not only to perform, but to transform their careers through business education for the classical singer. Before the pandemic, she operated Spotlight concurrent with a busy singing career.
Cindy’s performances have been commended by Opera News as “…lovely to hear,” “charismatic,” “ravishingly sung” and “an absolute scream,” by the New York Times as “wonderful,” and “a pure joy to watch” by BroadwayWorld.com. She has performed over 50 roles in venues across the United States, including Chicago Lyric Opera, Atlanta Opera, Arizona Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Austin Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Dayton Opera, San Antonio Opera, Minnesota Opera, Opera San Jose, Opera Idaho, El Paso Opera, Intermountain Opera, Portland Opera, Tulsa Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera,, Mill City Summer Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, The Princeton Festival , the Hollywood Bowl, the Christine Company of Phantom of the Opera, and many others. Signature roles include Erda (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Quickly (Falstaff) Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Zita (Gianni Schicchi), La zia principessa (Suor Angelica), and the Marquise de Berkenfeld (La fille du regiment).
As a stage director, Cindy is known for creative storytelling that offers a unique or unexplored perspective into the minds and hearts of the characters. Recent productions include Susannah for Texas Concert Opera Collective, Company, Opera in the Graveyard, La Vie de Boheme, and Prince Orlovsky’s Ball for the Hurley School of Music at Centenary College of Louisiana, The Consul, The Pirates of Penzance, L’elisir d’amore and Prince Orlovsky’s Ball for Spotlight on Opera, and her international directing debut with a double bill of Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi at the Mediterranean Opera Festival in Caltagirone, Sicily. Cindy’s directing credits include Gianni Schicchi for Opera Idaho, Little Red Riding Hood for Syracuse Opera, and Cavalleria rusticana, The Ballad of Baby Doe, The Crucible, Die Zauberflöte, Abu Hassan, and The Medium (Spotlight on Opera). This season at Spotlight on Opera, she will direct Gianni Schicchi and Woman, her original concept collaborative work on the experience of contemporary womanhood.
Known throughout the classical music world for her Mezzo With Character blog and 20+ year association with Classical Singer Magazine as their “Ask Erda” advice columnist, Cindy’s frank and witty writings on the classical singing industry are required reading, and she is one of the most often shared writers on the topic. She is also the author of The Student Singers’ Starter Kit, an essential book for students and parents considering a career in the arts. More recently, Cindy has begun to create her own translations of opera (a Gianni Schicchi set in 1980s Texas; English dialogue for The Magic Flute) and customizable concept productions which are especially suitable for young voices. These include La Vie de Boheme, a musical exploration the Bohemian life from a historical and cultural perspective; and Prince Orlovsky’s Ball, a two act opera based on Act II of Die Fledermaus, with original script which is rewritten for each new cast.
Cindy’s knowledge of the industry and passion for education led her to create The Business of Singing consultancy, which for twenty years has been the go-to source for artists hoping to troubleshoot their careers. In addition to hundreds of private consultations and special projects, Cindy has given workshops to students at San Diego University, San Jose State University, Jacksonville University, The San Francisco Conservatory, the Puerto Rico Conservatory, UCLA, Des Moines Metro Opera Young Artists Program, the CoOPERAtive program at Westminster College of the Arts, Portland State University, Resonanz Opera, Opera San Jose, the Classical Singer Convention, and many more. From 2017-2019 she served as the Artist in Residence at the Hurley School of Music at Centenary College of Louisiana, where she taught voice and directed the Singers’ Workshop. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from the University of Texas at Austin and during the pandemic earned her Master of Arts in Arts Administration from Goucher College.
Cindy continues to perform, explore, create, advise, educate, and innovate in the field of classical singing.
Spotlight 2023:
Stage Director for Gianni Schicchi, Woman
1:1 Dramatic and Career Coaching
Business of Singing Classes
Learn More:
CindySadler.com