Shana Blake Hill has distinguished herself in her career as a singing actress who loves a challenge. Opera News hailed Ms. Hill’s Cincinnati Opera performance of Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas as “…a highlight of the performance…floods of glorious sound.” Ms. Hill has appeared as a principal artist with such opera companies as Los Angeles Opera, Savonlinna Festival Opera (Finland), Dayton Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Pacific, Long Beach Opera, Santa Barbara Opera, Fargo Moorhead Opera, Opera Sacramento and Berkshire Opera. She has also been featured as a solo artist with orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, New West Symphony, Pacific Chorale, Florida Philharmonic, Naples Philharmonic, Pasadena Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Northwest Sinfonietta, and Colorado Symphony.
Especially at home with contemporary music, some of Ms. Hill’s world premieres and projects include Bright Sheng’s The Phoenix for soprano and orchestra with Philadelphia Orchestra and Seattle Symphony (available on the Naxos recording label); Sakagawea in Michael Ching’s opera Corps of Discovery on the Louis and Clark expedition; Sally Hemings in Glenn Paxton’s opera Monticello on the controversial personal life of Thomas Jefferson, commissioned by NPR Selected Shorts radio broadcast (now available on Audible); Ticie in On Gold Mountain, an opera by Nathan Wang (commissioned by Los Angeles Opera) on the novel by Lisa See; Sara’s Diary: 9/11, a dramatic song cycle on prose by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Leroy Aarons; and both Rosalba and Florencia Grimaldi in Daniel Catán’s acclaimed opera Florencia en el Amazonas.
In the genre of film Ms. Hill was chosen by legendary film composer Jerry Goldsmith to record the title track “The Mission” which opens Paramount’s blockbuster film The Sum of All Fears. Ms. Hill’s performance of “The Mission” was chosen to be part of Paramount Studio’s 90th Anniversary Favorite Soundtrack Compilation CD. Other media credits include solos on the soundtracks of the feature film Red Dirt and the Sci-Fi Series Seven Days to Midnight and the soundtrack of the short film God Don’t Like Ugly by Grammy winning producer Adreo Heard, which examines interracial marriage in the south during the 1960s.
Career highlights include Clorinda in La Cenerentola with Los Angeles Opera, Zerlina in Don Giovanni at the Savonlinna Festival in Finland, Rosalba in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en al Amazonas with Los Angeles Opera, Mimi (student matinee) in La bohème with Los Angeles Opera, Violetta in La traviata with Dayton Opera, Rosalba with Cincinnati Opera, Nedda in Pagliacci with Opera Sacramento, Leila in Pearl Fishers with FM Opera, Aida with Baltimore Concert Opera, Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Southwest, Roberta in An American Tragedy by Tobias Picker (West Coast premiere), Nedda in Pagliacci with Opera Sacramento, Aïda with the Baltimore Concert Opera, New Orleans Suite by William H. Curry with the North Carolina Symphony, Mozart’s Great Mass in C with the Pasadena Symphony, Les Chants D’Auvergne with the Naples Philharmonic, Mahler’s 4th with the Florida Philharmonic, Mozart Requiem with Northwest Sinfonietta, Mr. Tambourine Man by John Corigliano with the Pasadena