Above all, Sandra Porter is a singer of great dramatic instinct. Her versatility is reflected in the breadth of operatic roles, her recital programmes and concert performances.
In opera, Sandra has worked with companies including Opera Holland Park, Pavilion Opera, The Aldeburgh Festival, Palace Opera, Cambridge Opera, Opera on a Shoestring and Surrey Opera, performing Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Annina (La Traviata), Bianca (The Rape of Lucretia), Rosina (Il Barbieri di Seviglia), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Hansel (Hansel and Gretel), Dejanira (Hercules), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Carmen (Carmen). She also created the roles Marcellina in the premiere of Le nozze di Cherubino by Giles Swayne at the Camden Festival in London and Queen Vaan in Columba by Kenneth Leighton, with the BBC SSO conducted by Roderick Bryden at Glasgow Cathedral.
On the concert platform Sandra is a soloist with choral societies and choirs throughout the UK. She has been the soloist with chamber ensembles including The Chamber Group of Scotland, The Grosvenor Ensemble, The Telemann Ensemble, The Morley Quartet with performances in Germany and in the UK including St.Martin-in-the-Fields, St John's Smith Square and Glasgow Mayfest.
The variety and scope of Sandra's recital programmes show a rare ability to communicate to her audiences and the musicianship to perform repertoire from the Baroque to the present day. Sandra's extraordinary diverse repertoire is continually developing with the encouragement of her teacher Felicity Palmer and encompasses not only British, German, French and Italian, but also Russian, Spanish, Czech, Norwegian and Hungarian composers, all sung in the original language. Her recital performances have taken her as far afield as Tokyo for the UK/Japan International Arts Festival and she has broadcast for BBC Radio 3 and Radio Scotland. Her interest in contemporary music led her to commission, perform and record several new works, including a BBC commission and broadcast of songs by James MacMillan and song cycles by Sally Beamish and Thomas Wilson.
In 2003 she made her Buxton Festival debut singing The Witch (Hansel and Gretel) and covered the role of Juno (Semele) with conductor Harry Christophers and the Symphony of Harmony and Invention. She also gave a recital at the festival and sang the alto solo in Mozart's Mass in C which was broadcast by the BBC.
Other recent engagements include a performance of James MacMillan's cantata Raising Sparks in Milan, with the ensemble Sentieri selvaggi, Mahler 3 with the Scottish Symphonia, the alto solo in Bach's St.Matthew Passion with the International Festival Chorus at the concert hall in the Forbidden City in Beijing, the roles of Mercedes (Carmen) and Maddalena (Rigoletto) in London and on tour with the European Chamber Opera.
Forthcoming engagements include Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor with the Edinburgh Bach Choir; Madame Larina and Filipievna in Eugene Onegin with Opera by Definition; ‘Naughty Baby’, a cabaret style musical diversion, in Glasgow’s West End Festival and Dundee, and ‘Oriental Inspirations’, a song recital with Graeme McNaught, for Sound Festival, Aberdeen.
Sandra is also a visiting lecturer in vocal style and presentation at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.