Hailed for her "honeyed soprano" and "sweet amber tone" by Classical Voice North America, Filipina-American soprano Laura Corina Sanders is an artist to watch. Her notable accolades include First Prize in the Lotte Lenya Competition in 2018, First Prize in the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Houston Career Grant Competition in 2023, Encouragement Award winner in the 2023 Camille Coloratura Awards, and she has twice been the recipient of an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council competition. 

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In the spring of 2024, Ms. Sanders appeared in multiple productions with Opera Orlando, including the ensemble of Frida, First Wood Sprite in Rusalka, and The Daughter in Philip Glass’ The Juniper Tree, as well as covering Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor. This summer Ms. Sanders will join Charlottesville as an Ader Emerging Artist, and will make her role debut as Gianetta in L'elisir d'amore, as well as performing in the ensemble of The Music Man and study covering the role of Marian Paroo. Ms. Sanders will then go on to debut as Little Red Riding Hood in Steven Sondheim's Into The Woods at Union Avenue Opera, before making her role and house debut as Gretel in Humperdinck's Hansel And Gretel at Mobile Opera. 

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In 2023 Ms. Sanders made her debut with Minnesota Opera, creating the roles of Joua Thao and Kalia Yang in the world premiere of The Song Poet by Kao Kalia Yang and Jocelyn Hagen. This was a revolutionary AAPI-focused and female-led production, where she was credited for her “winning…clear soprano.” She made multiple role and house debuts in the summer of 2023, including Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Painted Sky Opera, The Young Woman in the rarely-performed Red Carnations by Robert Baksa with Lone Star Lyric Opera, and her Canada debut as Arsinoë in the world premiere of Cleopatra Built with Opéra Queens. In the fall, Ms. Sanders continued on to join Opera Orlando as a Studio Artist for the 2023-2024 season.

In 2022 Ms. Sanders made her debut with Hawaii Opera Theatre as Mary Lennox in Nolan Gasser’s opera adaptation of The Secret Garden. Earlier that same year she completed her tenure in Shreveport Opera’s Resident Artist Program, where she appeared as Micaëla in Peter Brook’s The Tragedy of Carmen and as Gilda in Rigoletto. Shortly after moving to her current home base of Houston Texas, Ms. Sanders participated in the preliminary libretto workshop for Big Swim, an opera commissioned by Houston Grand Opera in partnership with the Asia Society of Texas.

During the 2020-2021 season at Shreveport Opera, Ms. Sanders starred as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, and was featured in multiple roles for Shreveport Opera’s Art After Dark series, including Menotti’s The Telephone (Lucy), Benavides’ Pepito (Camila), Illick’s Feel The Tango (Sandy), and Michael Ching’s Speed Dating Tonight. Other notable engagements in 2021 included a summer residency as an Apprentice Artist at Central City Opera, where she performed as Belinda in Dido and Aeneas and covered the role of Julie in Carousel. 

In the 2018-2019 season, Ms. Sanders made her debut at Baltimore Concert Opera as The Foreign Woman in The Consul, Oswego Opera Theatre as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Adele in Die Fledermaus. In 2018 she was a Studio Artist at Wolf Trap Opera in, where she performed as Wilhelmina in David Hanlon’s Listen, Wilhelmina!, covered the role of Ilia in Idomeneo, and collaborated with Steven Blier on his song recital entitled The Art of Pleasure.

While earning her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music, she received multiple accolades and notable performance opportunities. Under the baton of Benton Hess, she performed as Lucette in Cendrillon, Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Signora Naccarelli in The Light in the Piazza. She was awarded first prize in the Friends of Eastman Opera Competition and was the winner of 2017 Voice Concerto competition, which gave her the opportunity to perform Berlioz’ cantata Herminie, H. 29 with the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of Maestro William LeSage. As part of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s OrKIDstra series, she performed as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance.

A keen lover of musical theatre, Ms. Sanders was praised by the Kurt Weill Foundation for her “vocal prowess, dramatic risk-taking, and canny choices of repertory” as a Lotte Lenya Competition Winner. She will be featured as a performer in Volume II of the Lotte Lenya Competition Songbook, a recording series by the Kurt Weill Foundation to showcase new and lesser-known musical theatre repertoire. She is a passionate advocate for music outreach and for developing new and innovative ways to engage audiences in the world of theatrical arts.