Sarah Crabtree has been co-CEO and co-General Director of Welsh National Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru since January 2025, job-sharing with Adele Thomas; she is a passionate advocate for shared leadership and progressive working practices. With a background shaped by innovative approaches to the development and delivery of opera, Sarah has been a leading voice in the innovation and R&D of new work in the UK opera sector and central to that work has been considering ways to bring opera to new and unexpected audiences.

Prior to WNOCC, Sarah was Creative Producer for The Royal Opera, responsible for programming and producing in the Linbury Theatre and for Royal Opera productions at venues away from Covent Garden, such as Shakespeare’s Globe and the Roundhouse. Sarah worked for Opera Holland Park from 2006 to 2015 and became Associate Producer to James Clutton in 2012.

Highlights of her career include commissioning Opera Holland Park’s first new work, Will Todd’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, overseeing the world premieres of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Coraline at the Barbican, Philip Venable’s 4.48 Psychosis, Laura Bowler's The Blue Woman and Oliver Leith’s Last Days. She was also responsible for The Royal Opera’s research and development programme, supporting the development of new work and emerging artists. An ardent champion for equity in the arts, Sarah founded Engender in 2019, opera’s first network for women and non-binary people, with the aim of delivering transformational change in gender equality in opera. Sarah was a change partner with Ramps on the Moon, working towards mainstream cultural change for disabled people in the arts, embedding anti-ableism across the sector.