Shana Oshiro

Shana Oshiro is an alumna of Morgan State University with a BFA in Vocal Performance and is a former Miss Maryland. She has appeared with Opera Philadelphia in productions of Porgy and Bess and Margaret Garner and with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as a featured ensemble member. Shana has performed with multiple local orchestras, opera/theatre companies, and chorales in the DC Metropolitan area— including IN Series Opera, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Theatre Alliance, and Coalition of African Americans in the Performing Arts. She has received awards and recognition in vocal competitions and showcases, nationally and internationally— including Opera Ebony, the Boris Martinovich Vocal Competition, and Music International Grand Prix. She currently specializes in American art song, performing pieces spanning the classical period to contemporary— both well-known and obscure— as well as lecture presentations and workshops that explore the intersections of music, history, and social justice. Shana has also collaborated with the celebrated composer Jasmine Barnes, bringing her own poetry to life in Barnes’s magnificent musical expression in the song, “Taking Names.” Shana is also a board-certified music therapist with her Master’s in Music Therapy at Shenandoah Conservatory. She has combined her love for performance with her interest in community music therapy to address racism in the U.S. with her barbershop quartet, HALO, and their collective community music therapy initiative. Their program, Race and #RealTalk, guides people through the listening and singing experience of Barbershop music to help engage each other in difficult conversations about our country’s complex race relations issues.