Crossing from Naples to Sicily in 1787 Goethe reflected on the novelty of seeing himself entirely surrounded by water. Until this happens, he said, you have no conception of the world or of your place in it. As a Sicilian I want to say, proudly, that I’ve found my place in music. Sara Di Bella is a light-lyric soprano trained in opera singing with a bachelor degree from Music Conservatory, Trapani and a master degree from Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. She has a degree in Musicology from Palermo University. Although trained as an opera singer, she has performed with many vocal ensembles like the JSB International Ensemble, the Tenso Chamber Choir, the Philharmonie de Paris ; she participated at the European tour of Joe Hisaishi, the renowned Japanese composer of film soundtracks.

Recently she has recorded the soundtrack of the Harry Potter short film “The House of Gaunt” with an 8-voices ensemble. She currently lives in Paris where she teaches singing and she is often asked to collaborate with the Europa Chor Akademie in Görlitz, Germany. Sara officially started her adventure with Anúna in 2013 even if the link was established way before, when she heard an album for the first time. From a fan to a member, that is quite a journey!

When I was little, at my grandparents’ house, my uncle used to play the opera arias at the piano and I used to sing along with him. I loved singing and playing piano so, when I was six, my parents decided to send me to piano lessons. That was the first important step. The second was when, at the Conservatory, I went for the first time at Choral lesson and I was asked to sing a solo. I had no fear, I just felt that I was at the right place. The years passed, I continued to train as a pianist and singing a lot in choirs and as a soloist. Then, one day, my choir teacher made me realise that I wanted to graduate as a pianist only to have the time to dedicate myself to singing lessons. The third important step was when I finally found the courage to stop my piano training and started the new singing path : the best choice I’ve ever made.

I started singing solos, doing concerts, singing some opera roles but my first love was always singing in choir and I did it whenever I could even if my singing teachers were not that happy about it.

At some point, lost in all of this, I started looking for something different : I wanted to escape my own island to find something new that I couldn’t get in the physical or musical horizon of my homeland. One day by the sea, many years ago, I was dreaming about the enchanted lands of Ireland while I was melting in Sicilian heat and… I found Anúna. They had something else : something deep and profound that could easily “blend” with my personal approach to music. This moment changed my life completely, again. After attending the first Anúna International Summer School, I met Michael McGlynn and I began my adventure with the group. I moved to Ireland, started rehearsing and soon began touring the world, bringing Michael McGlynn’s music in contact with different places and different cultures.

Singing with them made me realise a lot of things, as a performer, as a singer and as an artist.

To sing with Anúna you really need to be there.

Singing with Anúna means being present, in the moment, through the breath. Being trained as an opera singer, sometimes you can get caught in your own mind, thinking a lot about the technique and the best way to achieve the sound you’re looking for. When you sing with Anúna, you become an entity with your fellow singers : you connect with them trough the breath, you stop overthinking and you start making music. Together we create an invisible but a very solid energy and we shape music with it. People in the audience can feel it, they are part of it, and that’s why a live Anúna concert is always a unique experience. It’s like an elastic band. We hold one end and the audience holds the other. Our performances are always different because our audience is always different, with different responses.

We are a « real » performing group. We don’t have walls, we are not on a stage to create something flawless.. We are not perfect and that’s the beauty in it: Anúna is human. In order to be “real”, we have to create a link with every single person who is listening to us.