Exploring Clara Schumann with Sarah Fritz

Opera Uprising

Sarah Fritz is a writer, singer, and public musicologist. Her passionate advocacy on social media seeks to change the dialogue around marginalized musicians and composers in classical music. An expert on the history of Clara Schumann, her popular Twitter account is dedicated to telling truths and debunking myths around the infamous composer/pianist. She’s an in-demand speaker and lecturer, most recently at Northeastern University and at the launch of the Cambridge University Press book, Clara Schumann Studies.

Her writing on Clara Schumann re-examines with a modern lens one of the most powerful musicians in classical music history. Fritz places Schumann’s music and life in relevant context using overlooked research that includes fresh perspectives on Schumann’s personal and professional relationships with her husband, Robert, and her close professional friend, Johannes Brahms.

Fritz’s work has appeared in numerous publications including VAN Magazine, The Schubertian, and American Guild of Organists Magazine. She maintains an in-depth research blog and a monthly newsletter on Clara Schumann with a novel forthcoming.

Under her singer hat as mezzo-soprano Sarah Sensenig, she is a member of the voice faculty of the Westminster Conservatory at Rider University. She sings in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Symphonic Choir, this season’s highlights including Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at Carnegie Hall and the world premiere of Puts’s The Hours. She holds an M.M. from Eastman School of Music and B.M. from Westminster Choir College. Sarah debuted with the New York Lyric Opera Theatre in the title role of Handel's Alcina, and her other operatic roles include Fiordiligi in Mozart's Cosí fan tutte, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Nancy in Albert Herring, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas. She enjoys giving recitals with her pianist husband, especially in singing the Lieder of her favorite composer, Clara Schumann.