Choctaw baritone makes major opera debut

Mark Webster Orin Billy is a Verdi baritone, clarinetist, and Native flutist from Finley, Oklahoma.
Mr. Billy enjoys a multi-faceted career in opera, recitals with piano, concerts with orchestra, and Indigenous classical music education. Mark recently made a major operatic role debut with Canterbury Voices and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.
Mark created the lead baritone role of Inki’ in the historic first opera to ever be sung completely in an Indigenous language (Chickasaw) – Loksi’ Shaali’ “Shell Shaker” written by fellow Oklahoman and Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate.
In February of 2025 Mark will join the musicians of Mount Holyoke College in Boston to reprise his role in Loksi’ Shaali’. In April 2025 Mr. Billy will join the OKC Philharmonic in the world premiere of Tate’s American Indian Symphony.
Mark has collaborated several times with the OKC Phil, singing in Choctaw and playing the native flute.
Hailed as an authority on the intersection of Indigenous culture and classical music, Mr. Billy has led workshops on Choctaw singing and Indigenous composers. Recently featured in the New York Times for the North American Indigenous Songbook. Created by fellow Choctaw musical artist and conductor Timothy Long, who grew up in Holdenville, NAIS is an initiative to commission Indigenous composers to create new vocal works to be added to the standard art song repertoire. Mark is a performing artist on the roster of the North American Indigenous Songbook.