High lyric soprano Heather Phillips, whose performances have been described by Opera News as “beautiful” and “shimmering”, has performed over 20 operatic roles across North America and Europe, specializing in the Italian bel canto repertoire as well as the repertoire of W.A. Mozart & Richard Strauss.
Ms. Phillips recently made her professional European debut at Oper Frankfurt in Germany as the title role in Rossini's Bianca e Falliero in which the Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung noted, "Der Sopranistin Heather Phillips gelingt ein famoses Debüt.” Ms. Phillips reprised her role in Bianca e Falliero for her Austrian debut at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, also to critical acclaim.
Last season, Ms. Phillips returned to the role of Donna Anna in two new productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni for her house debuts with Staatstheater Nürnberg as well as Landestheater Coburg and debuted the role of Adina in L'elisir d'amore with the Charleston Opera Theatre. On the concert stage she appeared with the Princeton Pro Musica, Dayton Philharmonic, Las Vegas Symphony Orchestra and with the Tiroler Festspiele Orchestra for a gala concert featuring the music of the Bel Canto repertoire of Bellini, Rossini & Donizetti. She was also heard in recital with the Dayton Opera, in a program celebrating the centennial of Maria Callas. This coming season, she returns to Staatstheater Nürnberg for Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel.
Ms. Phillips’ further operatic & concert appearances have included repertoire spanning from the 18th to the 21st century in performances with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, The Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Ravinia Festival, Arizona Opera, Opera Naples, Austin Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Cincinnati Opera, New Orleans Opera Association, Kentucky Opera, Crested Butte Music Festival, Austin Symphony Orchestra, The Oregon Music Festival,True Concord Orchestra & Chorus, The Canton Symphony Orchestra, The Boise Philharmonic, The Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, among others. She has been a guest recitalist at The Tucson Desert Song Festival, Dayton Opera, Chamber Performance Santa Fe, Columbus Opera, The McDowell Music Club & Northern Kentucky University. Ms. Phillips can also be heard on the Grammy nominated original cast recording in the role of Katie in Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, a role she created at the Santa Fe Opera that was recorded with the Pentatone Recording Label.
An alumna of the Santa Fe Opera apprentice program, Ms. Phillips also trained at The Aspen Opera Institute, The Ravinia Steans Institute and received both her Master's and Bachelor's degrees from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. She studied German at the Institut für Sprachvermittlung in Bonn & Italian at The Lucca Festival in Italy.
Ms. Phillips has received many awards including top honors from Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation and the Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition. She is also the recipient of one of the Santa Fe Opera's outstanding apprentice singer awards and advanced in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, winning prizes at the district and regional finals. She also received awards from the George London Foundation, Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition, Marcello Giordani Foundation, Irma M. Cooper Vocal Competition, Schuyler Foundation Competition for Career Bridges, National Opera Association Vocal Competition, Orpheus Vocal Competition, Violetta Dupont Vocal Competition, and the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust. She made her Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall debut as a finalist in the Nico Castel Master Singer Competition and in the same year was selected to represent the United States as a finalist in the Queen Sonja International Vocal Competition in Oslo, Norway.
Alongside her performance career, Ms. Phillips has worked as an arts educator. Outside of her private teaching studio, her engagements have included mentoring, teaching and masterclasses at the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute Montréal, Tiroler Festspiele Erl Austria, Aspen Music Festival (high school division), Women's Artistic Leadership Initiative (ALI), ArtSmart Philadelphia, College of Charleston and Texas State University.