Alumni Spotlight

Coburn inducted into OSU Hall of Fame

 The Oklahoma State University Alumni Association is installing four new members into the prestigious OSU Hall of Fame.

Sarah Coburn, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, will be inducted at a ceremony Friday, February 9, at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center.

sarah coburn portraitInduction into the OSU Hall of Fame is the highest honor bestowed by Oklahoma State University. It recognizes alumni and former students with outstanding lifetime achievements in society and professional life.

Sarah Coburn graduated from OSU in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in music education. She went on to receive a master’s degree in voice performance from Oklahoma City University in 2001. While at OSU, Coburn served as Ritualist and Alumni Relations officer for the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

Coburn has become a renowned operatic soprano performing throughout the country and around the world for almost two decades. In the summer of 2017, Coburn recorded Bellini’s opera "I Puritani" with Delos Records, to be released next fall.

She has performed leading roles with The Metropolitan Opera, The Vienna State Opera, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, L’Opera de Montreal, Welsh National Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Portland Opera, Tulsa Opera, Atlanta Opera, Arizona Opera and many others. She has performed in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Washington Concert Opera, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Russian National Orchestra and others. Coburn created the role of Kitty in the world premiere of Anna Karenina at the Florida Grand Opera and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Her 2017-2018 season includes a return to the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen, concert performances in Latvia, and a role and company debut in Manon with Opera Santa Barbara. She will also be performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Choral Arts Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center.

Coburn has received awards from The George London Foundation, The Richard Tucker Foundation, The Jensen Foundation, The Liederkranz Foundation, Opera Index, and was a National Grand Finalist in the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Coburn and her husband, Chris Rothermel, reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they are raising their three children, Katie Rose, 8, Ruby, 5, and George, 2.

For more information about the 2018 OSU Hall of Fame honorees and induction ceremony, visit orangeconnection.org/hof