Teacher

Sharmila G. Lash is a performer, educator, soloist, and ensemble singer in both classical and jazz circles, and many in between. She has been a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale since 2006. She works as a session singer and has sung with San Francisco-based new music ensemble Volti and LA-based vocal jazz quartet True North. Teaching steadily since 2004, she incorporates her vast professional experience to help guide students to find their own voice.

Sharmila began her music studies at a very young age, starting piano lessons at age six and singing lessons at age eleven. She was a music student at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and continued on to study classical voice at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she discovered her passion for jazz. Since then, she has been a featured performer at the Jazz Education Network Conference, DiMiero Jazz Festival, American Choral Directors Association Conference, and Festival Napa Valley, to name a few.

Sharmila has performed with the LA Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, Carmen Lundy, Don Shelton, and many others, including some of the top jazz musicians in both Northern and Southern California. She has performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Santa Barbara Bowl, Mondavi Center, Zellerbach Hall, and more.

Sharmila has extensive experience singing in many languages, including Latin, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Bengali, and Swedish, among others. Her debut solo jazz album If Music Be the Food of Love, featuring guitarist Larry Koonse and bassist Kevin Axt, showcases her affinity for exploring songs that stray from the usual jazz repertoire, like the title track by Baroque composer Henry Purcell, a song by the alternative rock band The Cure, and a Bengali folk song.

As a session musician, Sharmila has sung for several film soundtracks for 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Pictures. Her most recent film chorus credits including Alita: Battle Angel, Frozen II, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Mulan. Sharmila is a member of AGMA, SAG-AFTRA, and ASCAP.