Oksana Shilova is the leading soloist of the Mariinsky Opera Opera Company in St. Petersburg, the owner of an incredible voice and beauty (color soprano) and vivid acting talent. Singer Oksana Shilova is known not only in Russia but also abroad - she was applauded by many world opera halls. Despite his star status, Oksana is a very modest and sincere person, as well as a stunningly beautiful woman, a happy wife and mother of two growing daughters.
Childhood and youth. The path to the career of a singer
Oksana Vladimirovna Shilova was born on January 12, 1974 in Uzbekistan - in the Tashkent region, in the city of Almalyk. In childhood, she was surrounded by the love and care of parents, grandmothers, uncles and aunts - in short, the family was friendly and strong. Oksana's father and mother taught history, received the title of Honored Teachers of Russia. Music always sounded in the house: my father played the guitar and sang, he composed the songs himself, and all the household members sang along with him. When Oksana was five years old, her father brought her daughter to a music school. There she appreciated her abilities, but she began to study music at only 13 years old. The fact is that the Shilov family left for Russia to build the city of gas workers Novy Urengoy, which was just beginning to be created. As soon as a music school was built in the city, Oksana entered the piano class there. The girl was very fond of playing the instrument, could spend hours at home playing the piano. But the choir’s lessons were unloved, because the teacher once said: “Shilova, you don’t have a voice, sit and just open your mouth.” Oksana did not like opera art either: when she heard academic singing on TV, she immediately switched channels. Therefore, then it could not even have crossed her mind that someday she would become a world-class opera singer.
At that time, Oksana Shilova, who was very fond of children, dreamed of becoming a music worker in a kindergarten, to mess with the kids, learn songs with them, and prepare children's morning performances. After graduating from high school at 16, as well as an external music school for three years, she decided to go to a pedagogical institute. One of the tasks at the opening colloquium was the performance of a song, and Oksana's father turned to his friend vocal teacher Ekaterina Goncharova with a request to prepare her daughter for exams. For two months, Goncharova performed a miracle: she not only revealed the girl’s incredible vocal abilities, but also set her voice - a colorful soprano, and also strongly recommended going to St. Petersburg and getting a professional musical education.
Creativity and career
Moving to St. Petersburg was a sharp turn in the biography of Oksana Shilova. Here she entered the Rimsky-Korsakov School of Music, the vocals class of Marianna Lvovna Petrova, who, in addition to teaching, was a soloist of the Mussorgsky Maly Opera Theater. Classes with Petrova gave Oksana Shilova a lot in terms of developing her vocal skills. After graduating from college, Oksana entered the vocal-directing faculty at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, having received 10 points in the vocal exam - this is the highest result, which is rarely awarded to applicants. And Marianna Lvovna Petrova, especially for her ward, took several teaching hours at the conservatory to continue working with Shilova: she was afraid that the beginning singer would not be spoiled by her voice. Thus, Marianna Petrova for nine years (four years at school and five years at the conservatory) studied with Oksana Shilova, preparing a singer of the highest class.
While still a third year student of the conservatory, in 1999, Oksana Shilova was admitted to the Mariinsky Theater - to the internship Academy of Young Singers. Her first stage work was the opera “The Wedding of Figaro” by V. Mozart (Suzanne, Barbarina), “Dido and Aeneas” by G. Purcell (Belinda), “Betrothal at the Monastery” by S. Prokofiev (Louise). At the Academy, Oksana got the opportunity to learn and gain experience from already held masters of the opera scene. And she, being a very disciplined girl, did not miss a single rehearsal, not a single lesson with a concertmaster, she attended all the performances of the Mariinsky Theater on a student ID. Shilova was greatly impressed by the performance in 1992 in Verdi's Othello opera by the outstanding tenor Placido Domingo, with whom she will subsequently work as a prima of the opera house.
Oksana Shilova presented the part of Violetta in J. Verdi’s opera La Traviata as a thesis. In the future, Oksana will rework and rethink this role, which will become one of her favorites, will play it in a new way, taking into account life and stage experience.
A good start for a novice singer was a victory at once in several international competitions: young opera singers named after Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg (2002), Elena Obraztsova competition (2003), opera singers competition in Geneva (2003), Stanislav Monyushko competition in Warsaw (2007))
In 2007, Oksana Shilova debuted at the Mariinsky Theater as a soloist. She was entrusted with the party of Despina in the opera "A. Everyone Acts" by V.A. Mozart. The hall was attended by the director and chief conductor of the theater Valery Gergiev, who drew attention to the acting talent and the wonderful voice of the young singer. Shilova became the leading soloist of the opera company, and today in her repertoire there are more than forty parts in the performances of the Mariinsky Theater. In addition, she performs solo concerts, the program of which includes not only arias from operas, but also romances and songs by Russian and foreign composers. Oksana believes that chamber vocal music is more difficult to perform than playing an opera performance: after all, the support of partners and the whole team helps on stage, and when playing a vocal miniature, you need to live a whole small life yourself in 3-4 minutes to convey the meaning of a romance.
Despite her merits and public recognition, the singer always tries to learn new things and continues to improve her vocal skills at master classes by such outstanding masters of the opera scene as Elena Obraztsova, Joan Sutherland, Renata Scotto, Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo and others.
Oksana Shilova is a guest soloist of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, and also performs on foreign opera stages in France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, the USA, etc.
