Violet Paris-Hillmer, soprano

Meet Violet

Violet appears on Show 459.

Violet Paris-Hillmer (soprano), 17, lives in Brooklyn, New York and attends Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division and the Special Music School. Violet attended Boston Conservatory Tanglewood Institute during the summers of 2022 and 2023. In the summer of 2024, she traveled to France to study at the Académie Internationale d’Eté de Nice with Lorraine Nubar. In school, Violet is a member of student government, an editor of the school newspaper, and an ambassador to Kaufman Music Center.

In 2024 Violet won first place in the Classical Singer Vocal Competition High School Division. She won first place in the Philadelphia Schmidt Vocal Arts Competition and was a finalist in the Schmidt Vocal Arts National Competition. She won the Special Music School Concerto Competition with “Bell Song” from Leo Delibes’ Lakme which she performed at Merkin Concert Hall accompanied by Park Avenue Chamber Symphony. In 2023 and 2024 she received scholarships from the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers. In 2022 she won first place in the Salzburg Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition as well as the Amsterdam Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition. Previously she received first place in Young Virtuoso, Prima Volta, and International Grande Music Competition.

In 2023 she represented the Tanglewood Young Artist Voice Program at Tanglewood on Parade, performed her original composition Flowering Corpse with Caroline Shaw, was a soloist for Caroline Shaw’s Bed of Letters, and had an original composition performed by VOCES8. In 2022 she made her debut with New York City Opera creating the role of Young Micòl in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.

In May of 2022, she performed in Aging Magician by Paola Prestini with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at the San Diego Opera. As a member of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Concert Ensemble, she has worked with and recorded works by Philip Glass, Lauri Anderson, Olga Neuwirth, Missy Mazzoli, and Nico Muhly with ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic and The American Symphony Orchestra on stages including Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Merkin Concert Hall.