Described as "luminously expressive" with a "silvery voice" that "moves from innocence to devastation with an actor's ease," Anna loves bringing new voices, stories, and musical ideas to life. She enjoys an eclectic career that takes her all over the world — premiering new works, performing old favorites, and recording a wide variety of sounds for film and television.
Anna discovered a passion for new music while an undergraduate, and has since made it a specialty. Over the past few years, she has performed in several world premieres, most notably creating the role of Bibi in the world premiere of Ellen Reid's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera p r i s m with LA Opera and Beth Morrison Projects. Her performance in p r i s m was described as "revelatory" (I Care If You Listen), and subsequently led to a successful run at Theatro Municipal de São Paulo. She is also credited with premiering the role of L in Anne LeBaron's LSD: The Opera, the role of Klara in Vera Ivanova's chamber opera The Double, the role of Lady Reason in Kate Soper's opera acclaimed new opera The Romance of the Rose, and, most recently, the soprano role in Kate Soper's "philisophy-opera" Ipsa Dixit, which earned glowing reviews such as this one from SF Classical Voice: "Soprano Anna Schubert commands the stage like a force of nature, part Oxford don, part commedia dell’arte clown, part Wicked Witch of the West delivering Soper’s octave-leaping score... It’s a role of mind-bending vocal demands, and Schubert is an ideal interpreter." Both p r i s m and The Romance of the Rose have since been released as albums.
Other repertoire highlights from the last few years include the role of Controller in Jonathan Dove's Flight with Opera Omaha; Lise in the Philip Glass opera Les Enfants Terribles, and Arianna in Handel's Giustino with Long Beach Opera; Haydn's Die Schöpfung and several Handel oratorios with the LA Master Chorale; Bernstein's MASS with the LA Phil; and Carmina Burana with Berkshire Choral International. In the 2024-25 season, Anna will debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra singing the Soprano 1 solos in Aureliano Cattaneo's La Nuit Sombre. She will perform Carmina Burana as the soprano soloist with both the LA Master Chorale and the Portland Symphony Orchestra, as well as the soprano solos in Bach's St. John Passion with Concordia University, and she is also expected to perform her first Mahler 4. The summer season will see Anna touring as a soloist with the Peter Sellars production of Schütz's Musikalische Exequien in Paris and Brussels, and as a guest soprano in the tour of Huang Ruo's Book of Mountains and Seas at the Edinburgh Festival.
Outside the world of classical vocals, Anna enjoys a stimulating and versatile career as a session singer. Her solo soprano vocals and extended techniques can be heard dramatically soaring over orchestra and choir in the films Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), as well as the Netflix series Midnight Mass and the HBO series Raised by Wolves.
Photo Credit: Karin Casillas