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Veena Akama-Makia, mezzo-soprano

Arkansas-born mezzo-soprano Veena Akama-Makia received her Masters in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Professor Kathryn Cowdrick. A graduate of the University of Central Arkansas, she sang leading roles in their productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors (Menotti), Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck), and A Hand of Bridge (Barber). In the summer of 2018, she completed an eight-week program at the Si Parla, Si Canta Opera Festival, the Italian language program for young singers in Urbania, Italy founded by Eastman Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Voice Benton Hess, where she made her Italian debut as Zita in Gianni Schicchi (Puccini). While there she sang in masterclasses given by Enza Ferrari, Beatrice Benzi, and Mira Zakai. Akama-Makia made her Eastman Opera Theatre debut as the Mother in Hansel und Gretel (Humperdinck) She continued in the Fall of 2018 with the role of Mezzo 1 in the Eastman Opera Theatre’s production of the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Ricky Ian Gordon. In May of 2019, she was the mezzo soloist in Liszt’s Missa Solemnis with the Eastman Symphony Orchestra and was a finalist in the Jesse Kneisel Lieder Competition. In 2019, she debuted the role of Mother and Grandmother in Little Red’s Most Unusual Day (Davies) at the Rochester Fringe Festival and made her Mass Opera debut as Gloria in Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride. Akama-Makia has won prizes in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Kristin Lewis Foundation Competition, the National Association of Negro Musicians Competition, Friends of Eastman Opera Competition, and the National Association of Teachers of Students Competition.

More information can be found on her website.