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Press Release for “A LIVE MIXTAPE:”

“A Live Mix Tape”
a live-recorded fresh take on an old artform
by Operatic Soprano Anishka Lee-Skorepa
Releases January 23, 2021

On January 23, Anishka Lee-Skorepa released her debut album, “A Live Mixtape”. Like any great mixtape, the album brings dynamic sounds together in unexpected ways. With this album, she has created an arch that lures in the listener with a powerful opening statement with “Pace, pace mio dio” from Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, catches hold with infectious Latin and urban America-inspired grooves featuring a bass and percussion rhythm section, and tells timeless stories of life and love in that deep, affecting way that only an expressive, operatic voice can on “Au pays où se fait la guerre” by Henri Duparc, “Von ewiger liebe” by Johannes Brahms, “Embraceable You” by George & Ira Gershwin and lastly “Siboney” by Ernesto Lecuona.

“A Live Mix Tape” is a live-recording of a small ensemble of incredible classical musicians – including Elena Galiskaia on piano, Zoe Kumagai-Elias on double bass and Ruben Hernandez-Diaz on percussion, bringing a fresh sound to classic opera while maintaining the integrity of the original compositions. The result brings Opera back into la calle and breathes new life into a sound that has become an institutionally preserved artform. Instead of an 80-piece orchestra and an elaborate production, Anishka sings the theatre of life that great opera captures with the vibrations of the life and rhythms where Americas meet. The result is arresting, but also accessible as an expression of a real, familiar human experience.

Anishka’s inspiration for this extraordinary album took root in the gateway to Latin America’s myriad of cultures – San Diego/Tijuana border. The experience of crossing is visceral and immediate: the sights, the smell, the rhythm and pace. But the people familiar to this threshold feel all the similarities among the differences. The San Diego/Tijuana border is a region where worlds come together and integrate in arts, family and industry, and the result is a tapestry of distinct parts that sum up to a vibrant cultural whole.

Anishka Lee-Skorepa is a distinguished vocal artist who lives, works, and creates as a fronteriza – an artist with a foot in both worlds, existing in the full flow of the border experience. She is an artist who never quite fit into conventional formulas: she grew up singing along with the music in her Latino neighborhood, stood out as a vocalist from a young age, then dove deep into rigorous operatic vocal training. She vibed with the stories of city life in hip-hop, sang professionally in the institutional worl d of the San Diego Opera, then broke out of institutional rules in U.S. opera performances with Tijuana’s “Opera en La Calle” (Opera in the Street). With these elements and a vision to capture the fronteriza experience, Anishka further explored her original sound in a series of cabaret performances in Tijuana, San Diego, and San Francisco. Now, Anishka’s artist’s journey has evolved into a unique sound integrating divergent cultural influences with her powerful, built-for-opera vocal instrument and artistry.

This music is for people who love music and live performance for that visceral actual connective experience. Opera aficionados will appreciate the selections from familiar “Pace, pace mio dio” to the lesser-known but equally virtuosic “Au pays où se fait la guerre”. The opera-curious will delight in Anishka’s ability to relate opera to the modern life experience with her gift for expressive storytelling and the pulses of Latin and urban America. All who love music and culture will appreciate this celebration of the vibrant synergy of elements coming together in the spirit of crossing borders.

The first single, “Pace, pace mio dio” is available on

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3WxMerh3ewzwwse6BBa5Fr

ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/anishka-lee-skorepa/1535399153

Bandcamp: https://anishkaleeskorepa.bandcamp.com

The video, filmed and directed by Evan Apodaca, (Hair and Make Up: Albee Alvarado, Production Assistants: Alexandra Moriel and Victoria Camarena-Elliott) is available on:

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user40107219

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFiJhEOtviA

The full album will be released on January 23rd, available on all platforms.

Media and News Features:

-Click HERE to hear an episode of KPBS’s “Only Here Podcast” featuring Anishka and her various border projects.

-Click HERE to hear an episode of KPBS’s “San Diego News Matters” featuring Anishka singing her “Round for the Unemployed.”

**A review of Anishka’s recital at Centro Cultural in Tijuana (CECUT) as part of the “Entre Bambalinas” recital series. The series brings the audience ON stage to enjoy the artists up close and personal. Click here to read. (In Spanish)

**An article from Tijuana’s Zeta Newspaper chronicling 2015’s Festival Opera en la Calle: Click here to read. (In Spanish)

**An article profiling Anishka during the “Save San Diego Opera” movement: Click here to read.

**Recent Community Events: Click to read.

**KPBS review Click to read

**As a handmaiden in Puccini’s “Turandot” at San Diego Opera: