Shana Blake Hill has distinguished herself throughout her career as a singing actress who loves a challenge. She has appeared as a principal artist with such opera companies as:  The 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, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The Seattle Symphony, The Pacific Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, The New West Symphony, Pacific Chorale, The Florida Philharmonic, The Naples Philharmonic, The Pasadena Symphony, The Louisville Orchestra, Northwest Sinfonietta and The Colorado Symphony.

 

Especially at home with contemporary music, some of Ms. Hill’s World Premiers 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 Catan’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 recently chosen to be part of Paramount Studio’s newly released 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”, most recently she is heavily featured on 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: Rosalba in Daniel Catan’s Florencia en al Amazonas with The Los Angeles Opera, Mimi (student matinee) in La Bohéme with The Los Angeles Opera, Violetta in La Traviata with Dayton Opera, Rosalba with Cincinnati Opera, 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, Aida with Opera Southwest, 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 4 with The Florida Philharmonic, Mozart Requiem with Northwest Sinfonietta, Mr. Tambourine Man by John Corigliano with The Pasadena Symphony, Maria in West Side Story with the Lexington Philharmonic, The Holiday Organ Spectacular at Disney Hall, Beethoven 9 with The Pacific Symphony, NBC Christmas in Colorado with Gavin MacLeod and the Denver Philharmonic (three consecutive years), Rodrigo’s Ausencias de Dulcinea with The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Carmina Burana with the New West Symphony.

 

Hill's 2018-19 season includes Verdi's Requiem with The Bryan Symphony in Tennessee, Llantos, a groundbreaking Flamenco opera by Adam Del Monte at the Tucson Desert Song Festival, Orfeus, a multimedia retelling of the myth by Nmon Ford, Ghita in Zemlinky’s Der Zwerg at the Historic Theater at Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, and her return to Festival Opera in the title role of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah with Festival Opera (which won two awards in San Francisco Classical Voice Best of the Bay: Best New Discovery, and third place in the Best Opera Singer category), "Sound and Fury" with The Verdi Chorus, Laura in Der Ring des Polycrates by Erich Korngold with Numi Opera, a solo recital in San Francisco. Hill is looking forward returning to Festival Opera in the title role of Bellini's Norma, a return to Numi Opera for more Korngold, Opera Goes to Broadway with Folsom Lake Symphony and she is thrilled to be a part of the Decameron Opera Coalition's "Unsung Heroes" this season, representing FM Opera as a first time librettist and filmmaker in the title role of her one act opera Sacajawea: Woman of Many Names; now streaming for the rest of 2021. Hill became a published author in 2020 with a historical biography entitles Aaron McDuffie Moore: Physician, Educator and Founder of Durham's Black Wall Street, from the University of NC Press. She is dedicated to celebrating her mixed race heritage and to bringing diverse voices and perspectives to the stage however she can. 

 

Ms. Hill received her BM from Oberlin, her MM from USC, and is an Alumna of The Los Angeles Opera’s Resident Artist program. She is a Naxos and Sony recording artist.