About
Sarah Grace Graves is a singer and composer working where recital meets ritual.
As a vocalist, she regularly performs demanding 20th- and 21st-century solo and chamber music, including Giacinto Scelsi’s Canti del Capricorno, Erin Gee’s Mouthpieces, and Alvin Curran’s Music for Every Occasion. Her solo project Three Names, created at the Fondazione Isabella Scelsi, combines Scelsi’s Three Latin Prayers, Curran’s Three Ligurian Chants, and her own music. It has been performed internationally and was released by the Berlin label Elektramusic in 2025.
As a composer, she often writes for vocal ensemble. Recent commissions include pieces for Ensemble Aedes, Les Cris de Paris, and the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. Her vocal music is organized by gesture and position in space rather than by voice type, so any group of ambitious singers can perform it.
She is a laureate of the Voix Nouvelles Academy of the Fondation Royaumont and a PhD candidate in composition at UC Berkeley. She has taught vocal improvisation at KU Leuven, KASK & Conservatorium, and PXL Hasselt.
Composition
Click here for list of works
Breath Atlas (2025) for voice and percussion duo. Written for line upon line. Premiered with line upon line, January 11, 2025 at CRASHBOX, Austin, TX. Score sample
Love Letter (2023), reworking of Monteverdi’s Lettera Amorosa after a tape in the Michiko Hirayama archive, for voice, two pianos, timpani, video, and tree branches. Written for Yarn/Wire. Premiered with Yarn/Wire, December 15, 2023 at Hertz Hall, Berkeley, CA.
Howl Alive (2022), for voice and bass clarinet. Premiered with Carol Robinson at the Fondation des États-Unis, April 21, 2022 as part of the artistic residency project Bringing Life to the Score with Carol Robinson, Ensemble Calliopée and the Fondation des États-Unis.
the feeling of being in a body (2021), for six voices. Written for Académie Voix Nouvelles of Fondation Royaumont. Premiered by EXAUDI on September 5, 2021.
night vision (2019), for two voices. Written for and premiered with Niki Lada at IlSuono Contemporary Music Week, Città di Castello, IT, July 2019. Score sample
Subsequent performances with Soso Leung-Wolf, Cecilia Engelhart, Nahyoung Judy Jung, Helena Sorokina, Reinet Behncke, Simona Mastropasqua, and Virginia Guidi
Landing (2018), for string quartet. Composed June–October, 2018. Premiered at CNMAT by Quatuor Tana, November 11, 2018.
Subsequent performances by JACK Quartet, Bergamot Quartet, and Homegrown Ensemble (Tampa, FL).
Performance
Click here for repertoire list
Carol Robinson: Back Into the Gaping Again-ness (2021) for voice and fixed media
Giacinto Scelsi: Canti del Capricorno (1962-1972, unpublished) for solo voice and auxiliary instruments
Projects
Sada Duo with Eda Er - I’m unhappy with how late you are. (2023)
A Rose Is Not a Rose (2023)
all those beautiful feelings are your feelings (2023)
YEAH (2024)
Sarah Grace Graves and Virginia Guidi
Ritual 03.04.2023