Versatile, perceptive, & a passionate advocate for music as a force for change,
Sarah Penicka-Smith thrives working across genres & disciplines. Read more.

'Conductor Sarah Penicka-Smith expertly held it all together, guiding the three companies through the four works.'
Carol Dance, Sydney Arts Guide, May 2021

'Simply spine-tingling...The newly-formed River City Voices and their Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Dr Sarah Penicka-Smith are to be congratulated on their sterling first season, Hallelujah indeed!'
Jessica Foong, Classikon, December 2020

'Sarah Penicka-Smith (Australia) gets kudos for her performance of the big duet that ends the first act of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Puccini is notoriously difficult to conduct because he raises rubato to a new level that gives the singers a .007 designation. Penicka-Smith allowed Palmertree and Vargas to go their own way and the result was a moving performance.' 
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs, Theater Jones, November 2018

'Penicka-Smith ... accompanied stylishly and sensitively in an aria from Vivaldi's Giustino and responded keenly to the twists and turns of a heartrending duet from Puccini's Madama Butterfly.'
Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, November 2018

'Similarly expressive is Sarah Penicka-Smith’s conducting ... The Gay and Lesbian choir ... were well controlled by their conductor whose theatrical timing is equal to the task of being the on-stage director. It is complex music and the conductor sometimes left a note hanging or allowed a silence to envelop rather than rush to the next phrase.!'
Judith Greenaway, Sydney Arts Guide, November 2015

UPCOMING

Next Chapters II: Above Below. Legs On The Wall, Willoughby Symphony, Susannah Lawergren (Soprano). 19 March, The Concourse.

Songs of Destiny. River City Voices, Willoughby Symphony Choir, Willoughby Symphony. 22 May, Riverside Theatres Parramatta.

Festival Choir Conductor, Blackheath Choral Festival. Christine Anu, Gordon Hamilton, Michael Kennedy, Jerrah Patston & Sam Worrad, Elizabeth Sheppard, Dan Walker, Lisa Young, 26-28 August 2022, Blackheath. Program also includes Elizabeth Sheppard 'Gandangarragal' and Troy Russell 'The Chant' with River City Voices.

And we're more than a year into the Klein-Arkinstall Project (working title): a new opera about a young woman living and performing with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, with an all-female creative team. Read more here.

Header photo: Karen Almond