Sarah Wigley

Bio

Sarah Wigley is a Clinical Associate Professor of Voice for the Lyric Theatre department at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, where she instructs Lyric Theatre Studio, Musical Theatre Repertoire, Contemporary Graduate Voice, and BMA Senior Showcase while maintaining a voice studio of over 20 students.  Frequently stage directing both opera and musical theatre, directing credits with Lyric Theatre @Illinois include City of Angels, Fun Home, The Marvelous Wonderettes, Ordinary Days, Crazy for You, She Loves Me, Kiss Me Kate, 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Title of Show, A Psalm of Silence, The Adventures of Little Sharp Ears, and both La Boheme and Don Giovanni in collaboration with Nathan Gunn. Wigley holds an MM in Voice Performance from Colorado State University and a BM in Voice from the University of Minnesota. While residing in Minneapolis, Wigley performed professionally with regional companies such as the Guthrie Theatre, the Skylark Opera, the Mystery Cafe, the Minnesota Centennial Showboat, and the Minnesota Opera. Ms. Wigley’s Denver credits include roles such as Aldonza in Man of LaMancha, Emma in Jekyll and Hyde, Dolores in The Wild Party, and Miss Scarlett in Clue-The Musical. Sarah Wigley has served as faculty for the Musical Theatre department at the University of Northern Colorado as well as Parlando School for the Arts in Boulder, Colorado, and has had several students appear on Broadway and in national tours and regional theaters across the nation.

As a contemporary voice specialist, Ms. Wigley is an internationally certified Estill Voice Master Trainer, frequently presenting workshops concerning flexible voice technique and crossover training for both studio voice teachers and choral educators. Sessions ranging from “Crossing Over: Contemporary Voice Technique for Solo and Ensemble Singing” to “Crossing Genres: A Classical Singer’s Guide to Jazz” have energized the International Congress of Voice Teachers (Stockholm, Sweden), the Estill World Voice Symposium (Vienna, Austria), the National Association for Teachers of Singing, Illinois Music Education Association, Iowa Choral Directors Association, and Minnesota Music Education Association. Wigley serves as the President of the Illinois Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters, the Development Liaison for the Central Region of the National Association for Teachers of Singing, and recently had the pleasure of creating Franc D’Ambrosio’s new touring show “Beyond the Chandelier.”