Mark Billy
Mark Webster Orin Billy is a Verdi baritone, clarinetist, and Native flutist of Indigenous (Choctaw tribe) ancestry from Finley, Oklahoma. Mr. Billy enjoys a multi-faceted career in opera, recitals with piano, concerts with orchestra, and Indigenous classical music education.
In February of 2025 Mark will join the musicians of Mount Holyoke College in Boston to reprise the role of Inki' in Loksi' Shaali' (Shell Shaker) written by fellow Oklahoman and Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate. Later in the spring of 2025 Mark will be busy as an orchestral soloist with the Rochester Symphony, Bach Society of Minnesota, and the Lubbock Symphony. Singing Mozart's Requiem, Haydn's Paukenmesse, and Carmina Burana.
In April 2025 Mr. Billy will join the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in the world premiere of Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate's American Indian Symphony. Mark recently collaborated with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, singing in Choctaw and playing the native flute. In the 2021-22 season, the baritone stepped in at the last minute to sing Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate's work Standing Bear in the Ponca language at the 2022 Moab Music Festival in Utah.
Mark recently reprised his roles as singer and Native flutist with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in an event sponsored by the Force 50 Foundation. He performed the exciting and moving Grand Entry Medley which combines traditional pow drum and singing, Native flute playing, and singing in Indigenous languages with orchestral accompaniment.
The baritone was recently featured as a guest artist and clinician at the 2024 South Dakota MTA conference presenting a recital of classical/operatic and Indigenous music as well as lecturing on Indigenous history overlooked in current primary and secondary school curricula. Mark also served as a judge and masterclass clinician for the SD MTNA competitions held at the same time and venue.
In October Mark traveled home to Oklahoma to create the lead baritone role of Inki' in the first ever opera written in an Indigenous language, Chickasaw: Loksi' Shaali' (Shell Shaker) written by fellow Oklahoman and Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate.
Mark is an artist on the roster of the North American Indigenous Songbook. NAIS is an initiative to commission Indigenous composers to create new vocal works to be added to the standard art song repertoire. This spring Mark made his professional singing debut in New York City at National Sawdust, singing what might be the first ever performances in the Choctaw language in New York.
Hailed as an authority on the intersection of Indigenous culture and classical music, the baritone recently completed an educational tour with Opera Montana: the Wheels of Harmony tour. Mark and two other indigenous musicians performed a program of standard opera repertoire, as well as works by living Indigenous composers and traditional ceremonial music.
Last spring Mark joined the Mesabi Symphony as baritone soloist in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. Mark also joined the Duluth Superior Symphony to sing the baritone solos in Carmina Burana.
Last November Mark made his Madison Opera debut singing the role of the Sacristan in Puccini’s Tosca and covering the role of Baron Scarpia. In March 2023 Mark jumped in as a last minute (same day) replacement in University of Wisconsin Opera’s performances of La Traviata as Giorgio Germont. In the summer of 2023 the baritone made his debut with the Minnesota Orchestra.
2025 includes many important recital debuts including one in Seattle with the Music of Remembrance concert series.
Mark is the recipient of numerous awards and performance grants including the Music in Action Grant from the Wagner Society of the Upper Midwest, Opera Reading Project’s IDEA Fellowship, first prize in the St. Croix Valley Opera Competition and first prize in the Schubert Club Competition.
Mark has been a young artist with Hawaii Opera Theatre and with Fargo Moorhead Opera. Mark was a national finalist in the Ryan Opera Center auditions at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Mark’s major teachers have been George Smith, Richard Anderson, Carol Vaness, Marilyn Horne, and David Etheridge (clarinet).