Léonie Sonning Talent Prize recipient 2025
MEZZO-SOPRANO AND MUSIC EDUCATOR
For Sara Amalie Heise, teaching and music education are integral to being a musician. Teaching is not a fallback—it’s a passion equal to performing. She balances work as a church musician, choir conductor, and ensemble singer with her studies in general music education at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
She grew up in Copenhagen in a home filled with classical music. Her mother was a classical singer, her father a pianist and aural skills teacher. Music was a natural part of her upbringing.
Sara began singing and playing violin at five, later adding percussion, but her voice became her primary instrument. She spent 14 years in the DR Girls’ Choir while attending Sankt Annæ School and later the Sankt Annæ Girls’ Choir.
After HF studies, she enrolled in the Church Music School and MGK before entering the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where she now studies with a focus on voice and aural skills pedagogy.
She currently works as a church musician at St. Mark’s Church, leading children’s choirs, adult choirs, and baby hymn classes. She also leads Ensemble Karitas and sings in ÆTLA Vocal Ensemble, which she co-founded.
She plans to use her Léonie Sonning Talent Prize for private lessons in conducting, piano, and singing, as well as for a masterclass abroad focused on early music. For Sara, continuing education is essential—conservatory or not.
