Described as possessing a voice capable of “vaulting to vertiginous heights” (The New York Times) and singing with “poise, polish and a lovely voice” (The Millbrook Independent), soprano Ilana Zarankin is a recent graduate of Dawn Upshaw’s Bard College Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program (in the studio of Lorraine Nubar).

In the upcoming summer, Ilana will be joining the roster of Vocal Fellows at Tanglewood Music Festival, where she will perform in Oliver Knussen’s Higglety Pigglety Pop! Most recently, Ilana collaborated with composer/pianist Jimmy Roberts in a programme of standards from the American Songbook (March 2012, Glenn Gould Studio). In 2011, Ilana made her Carnegie Hall (Weill Hall) debut in a World Premiere of Christopher Mayo’s song-cycle “Death on Three-Mile Creek” as part of the Dawn Upshaw/Donnacha Dennehy Workshop for New Vocal Works. Ilana also performed in an evening of “First Songs” at the Morgan Library (in NYC).

Ilana completed her BMus in Voice Performance at the University of Toronto (Opera Division) studying with Mary Morrison. In the summer of 2010, Ilana won a Canada Council for the Arts Grant which allowed her to participate in the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv as a Young Artist. She has also taken part in soprano Wendy Nielsen’s Opera Workshop Intensive, the Queen of Puddings Contemporary Song course with John Hess and Dáirine Ní Mheadhra, the Vancouver International Song Institute. She was the recipient of the Kathy and Gonzalo de las Heras Vocal Scholarship in 2010 and 2011 and was the 2009 recipient of the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto scholarship. Her studies are also supported by Horatio and Jackie Kemeny.

She has been featured in a number of Off Centre Music Salon concerts, has sung the role of Minka in the Toronto Opera Club’s presentation of excerpts from Chabrier’s Le roi malgé lui, and recently made her international recital debut in Mexico. Ilana has also completed a degree in Drama and Theatre (McGill University). Ilana is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.