Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Soprano Heather Phillips has been praised for a voice that is “simply glorious” and “glistening.” As a recent fellow at the Aspen Music Festival she sang the role of Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Aspen Opera Theatre under the baton of Jane Glover.

This season, Heather Phillips will reprise her role of Katie in Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain at Opera Philadelphia, a role she recently created at the Santa Fe Opera. She also debuts at Arizona Opera as Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff and as a recitalist at the Tucson Desert Song Festival. Also at Santa Fe Opera she covered Gilda in Rigoletto and was a featured soloist in a lieder recital under the direction of Harry Bicket for the chamber music series Performance Santa Fe. She also covered Frasquita in Carmen as well as performing in the apprentice scenes showcase as Sardula (Menotti's The Last Savage) and as La Contessa (Rossini's Il Viaggio A Reims) at the Santa Fe Opera. Other recent performances include a return to Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Elvira in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri.  

In 2015, Ms. Phillips was awarded 3rd place in the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and was also awarded career grants from both the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Vocal Competition and the Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition. She is also the recipient of one of The Santa Fe Opera's 2014 outstanding apprentice singer awards. Ms Phillips advanced in the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions winning the Connecticut district and receiving the 3rd place prize at the New England Regional Finals.

Ms. Phillips is also a two-time finalist and award recipient from prestigious Kurt Weill Foundation/Lotte Lenya Competition which recognizes singers based not only on vocal ability, but acting and versatility in the many different genres of sung theatre. In previous years, she has also received recognition and awards from the George London Foundation, 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, Anna Sosenko Assist Trust, and was a district winner and regional finalist in the 2009 and 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2013 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.

Ms. Phillips received both her Master's and Bachelor's degrees from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music and after her formal education, trained as a young artist with Cincinnati Opera, Kentucky Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City.