For Carnegie Hall’s The Song Continues “Spotlight Recital”:
“It would be impossible to have heard her hour long Spotlight Recital last night without being swept along in a tidal wave of affection for the art of the song. It is rare to hear a recital without a single moment of boredom… Ms. Craft really knows how to get a song across and employs facial expression and gesture as well as vocal coloring. It is never excessive but always tasteful. She is a born storyteller and one can readily visualize the scenes about which she is singing. She truly inhabits the song and makes it hers, as if she were making it up on the spot… the use of vocal color and dramatic expressiveness brought the songs to vivid life… We felt as if we were living this scene along with her.” –Voce di Meche
“Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis [was] the highlight of the evening. The weight and timbre of her voice perfectly suited Debussy’s sinuous caresses. Especially in “La chevelure,” Craft fully inhabited the music with intensity and focus, but she was exquisite in all three songs… specificity and confidence [was] displayed here… [She] dug deeper in three Schubert songs, with a touchingly bereft “Heimliches Lieben,” a glowing, focused “An die Sonne” and an affecting, genuine “Gretchen am Spinnrade.” Her wry humor informed Mahler’s “Rheinlegendchen,” and she found richer notes alternating longing and determination in “Scheiden und Meiden.” Ginastera’s Cinco canciones populares argentinas revealed still more hues, with the frenzied mating call of “Chacarera,” the gentle lull of “Arrorró,” and the mournful “Triste,” in which Craft unleashed solid, impassioned high notes.” –Opera News
For Bach New Year’s Eve with Amor Artis Chorus and Orchestra:
“Along with extra energy from the soloists, mezzo-soprano Sarah Nelson Craft gave a particularly mesmerizing reading of the Agnus Dei. Her voice flowed with a smooth, honeyed quality that seemed to trickle down the church’s thick stone pillars. That she and the orchestra blended so well was further tribute to the chemistry with Brandau and his focused direction.” –Seen and Heard International
For LoftOpera’s Così fan tutte:
"I believe that the evening’s success truly hinged on the charisma and talent of the four young lovers. As Fiordiligi and Dorabella, Megan Pachecano and Sarah Nelson Craft were excellent, believable within their roles, while remaining vocally reliable... both singers were able to build fully realized characters."... "Craft’s fluid, robust singing"..."the pliant and luminous Craft." –Parterre Box
"As is usual in their productions, LoftOpera presented a strong vocal cast. From all the singers one felt a great love for this music, and it was a great pleasure to watch and hear the interplay among them... Mezzo Sarah Nelson Craft, the Dorabella, was best in her ensemble numbers: her warm, rich voice brought out the magic in Act I’s “Soave sia il vento” and Act II’s “Il core vi dono.”" –Opera News
“LoftOpera’s casting is, as usual, acute… For a staging set among high schoolers – appropriate for this tale of innocence yielding to experience – the company selected four singers who could pass for teenagers, the boys goofy and the girls preening”… “Megan Pachecano sang Fiordiligi with a lucid soprano, blending easily with the soft-grained mezzo of Sarah Nelson Craft”… “the kids’ interactions were gentle, tender.” –The New York Times
"As is also generally the case at LoftOpera, casting was both offbeat and deeply satisfying.
...the warmly romantic vocalism of Sarah Nelson Craft as the younger Dorabella" –New York Observer
“The singers were cutups, confident and funny on stage, and vocally adept […] Sarah Nelson Craft sang the earthier Dorabella deftly and her droll face can convey any emotion, often two or three at once. I was grateful that she played the younger sister without the sluttishness too many directors impose.”
–Musical America
For Chopin concert with Brooklyn Art Song Society:
“In the intimate confines of the Brooklyn Historical Society’s Great Hall, mezzo-soprano Sarah Nelson Craft made an immediate impact in the Chopin songs. She is one of those singers for whom words and tone combine to create a beautiful, bubbling musical flow of emotion. Chopin’s songs are mostly strophic and, in each verse, Craft brought out subtle textural details in her phrasing and articulation of the text. Her face beamed as she sang of the joys of young love, but the heartbreaking catch in her voice when she sang of an unrequited love brought a lump to the throat.” –Seen and Heard International
For Hugo Wolf concert with Brooklyn Art Song Society:
“Through her poise and rich mezzo-soprano, Sarah Nelson Craft summoned the art of a song recitalist. In ‘Zum neuen Jahr’, she sang with tenderness and delicacy in greeting the New Year that arrives as soft and rosy as a cherub. ‘Verborgenheit’, in which a person longs to withdraw from the world and enjoy life in solitude, is one of Wolf’s most popular songs. Craft sang it with a calmness and quiet intensity that cast a spell over the audience.”
–Seen and Heard International
For Schubert concert with Brooklyn Art Song Society:
Craft displayed grace and charm in lively renditions of ‘Heidenröslein’ and ‘Seligkeit’, but it was in the more poignant and dramatic songs that she fully revealed the rich beauty of her voice and her dramatic instincts. In ‘Am Tage Allerseelen’, a peaceful prayer requesting that the souls of those who did not find happiness in life rest in peace, she sang with sincerity and warmth. In ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’ and ‘Die junge Nonne’, Craft’s expression of character and mood perfectly depicted the myriad of emotions in two of Schubert’s most dramatic songs.
–Seen and Heard International
For Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe with LOTNY:
”Sarah Nelson Craft sang Piramo with a pleasing, well-formed mezzo… presented the drama well in [her] big scenes.”
—Opera UK