Sara Cahier

Sara Cahier (8 January 1870 – 15 April 1951) was an American-born mezzo-soprano or contralto singer in opera and lieder, who sang mainly in Europe, later acquiring Swedish citizenship. She was associated with Gustav Mahler, and was one the soloists in the posthumous premiere of his Das Lied von der Erde in 1911. She also sang at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and was a teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her students included Marian Anderson.

She was born as Sara Jane Layton Walker in Nashville, Tennessee. She studied in Indianapolis, and in Paris under Jean de Reszke, and made her debut as Orpheus in Orpheus and Eurydice in Nice in 1904. Other teachers included Gustav Walter,Victor Capoul and Amalie Joachim.

Her first husband was Morris Black. In 1905 she married a Swede, the impresario Charles Cahier, after which she was generally billed as "Madame Charles Cahier", or "Sara Charles-Cahier".

She was active in Vienna, joining the Hofoper in 1907, and Munich, often singing under Gustav Mahler's directorship in roles such as Amneris, Carmen, Delilah, Fidès, Ortrud, and Santuzza.

She and her fellow American the tenor William Miller were chosen by Bruno Walter to premiere, posthumously, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in Munich in November 1911. She also sang in the New York premiere of the work in 1922, with tenor Orville Harrold, under conductor Artur Bodanzky.

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