Voice Competition

American singer/conductor, Nathan De’Shon Myers has established himself as a versatile artist with international appeal. His hybrid career spans 20 years and includes professional performance in opera, jazz and gospel, choral & opera conducting, private voice instruction, classroom teaching, and leading and managing teachers. He has been a featured soloist with opera companies and orchestras throughout the United States and across Europe including Theater Neustreliz, Stadttheater Trier, Salzburg Landestheater, Chautauqua Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Louisiane, the Amalfi Coast Festival in Italy and Deutsche Oper Berlin where, as a fest soloist he, performed roles such as Dandini in La Cenerentola, Dancairo in Carmen, Schaunard in La Boheme, Ping in Turandot, Marullo in Rogoletto and Matthieu in Andrea Chenier, and more. Other roles performed include the title roles of Gianni Schicchi, Don Giovanni, and Johnny in Ernst Krenek’s Johnny Spielt Auf. During the summer of 2018, Myers revamped his role as Julian in the South African premiere of the American opera Wading Home.

Having collaborated with notable artists such as Kristin Chenoweth, Maurice Brown, Robert “Sput” Searight, and Tamela Mann, Myers maintains a national and international presence in the gospel and jazz worlds as well. He released his debut urban gospel album, Making A Way in 2014 and was a member of the recording ensemble for Kirk Franklin’s Grammy Award-Winning album, Losing My Religion in 2015 and lent his voice and musicianship to the soundtracks of the movies Hidden Figures in 2016 and The Star in 2017.

Equally passionate about education, Myers holds music degrees from the University of Tulsa, Mannes College of Music, and Southern Methodist University and was featured in Old Navy’s National Back-To-School campaign OnWard performing a song he co-wrote entitled “Sing Out”. A former member of the music faculty at the highly-acclaimed Booker T. Washington HSPVA in Dallas, he served as the Music Conservatory Director and Head of Opera & Vocal Studies. During his 7-year tenure there, Myers consistently earned UIL sweepstakes ratings with his Tenor/Bass Choirs, developed a fully-integrated opera training program and founded a highly sought-after curriculum-based Gospel Choir. He was honored to co-conduct the school’s Varsity Treble Choir in their 2016 TMEA Convention Honor Performance and was asked to serve as clinician for TMEA’s Region XX 9/10 Treble Honor Choir in 2017.

In the fall of 2018, Myers joined the music faculty at Arizona State University where he currently serves as Assistant Professor of Voice. In 2019, Myers was a featured soloist on the album: a Bizzy Christmas with Friends 2and released the single “I Wish You Would” from his much-anticipated sophomore album entitled Found My Joy, to be released in 2020 with RSVP Records. Recent performances include Carmina Burana with the Mount Desert Summer Chorale, featured performances with Tempe Winds as well as featured performances at the New Orleans Jazz Fest and the A-Trane Jazz Club in Berlin, Germany.

After earning her degree in Choral Music Education from Northern Arizona University, Lies’l Hill moved to New York City where she lived and worked as an educator, conductor, and singer with the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Choir and was the Founding Assistant Artistic Director of New York Chamber Choirs. She was inspired to further her education through three years of Lincoln Center’s Teaching Artist Lab and Leadership Lab and Harvard University’s Passion-Driven Learning Institute. After returning to AZ in 2016, she began following a passion for local arts organizations, serving as the AZ Creative Aging Coordinator for the Arizona Commission on the Arts and in outreach and development for the Phoenix Chorale and Mesa Arts Center.

Today, Lies’l is Adjunct Faculty at Mesa Community College assisting with the Choral Department and teaching Voice. She can also be found in music classrooms valley-wide as a freelance teaching artist in voice and dance. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Education through NAU. Lies’l sings professionally both as a soloist and with the Grammy-Award winning choir, Phoenix Chorale, as well as the Canto Vivo Chorale and Solis Camerata chamber choirs.

Kristi Rice has a Master of Music degree in Voice Performance with an emphasis in Musical Theatre Performance from Arizona State University. She has a background in Classical voice, Musical Theater, Worship music and Pop. She also studied voice privately in New York City with the Tony award winning Victoria Clark, and with world renowned composer and vocal coach Craig Bohmler and Broadway tour director Alan J Plato. She has maintained a private voice studio and piano studio for nearly two decades and is currently Adjunct Voice Faculty at Grand Canyon University teaching Vocal Performance, Musical Theater and Worship Arts Students. Kristi has performed locally with Arizona Theatre Company, Phoenix Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Phoenix, Theatre Works and Child’s Play and nationally with several regional theatre companies. Some of her favorite roles include, Anna Leonowens in The King and I, Maria in The Sound of Music, Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. Kristi is constantly humbled and awed by how much she learns every day from her students. She loves teaching, and is so grateful to be of service to growing voices and help to shape the future of young performers.