Born in Melbourne, Australia to a family from Kharkiv, Ukraine, Soprano Billie Tumarkin has an abiding passion for the transformative power of song.

Tumarkin is currently undertaking her Masters at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester after having the privilege of winning a full scholarship at the 2022 IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition. She is supported by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, and the University of Melbourne’s Rae and Edith Bennet Travelling Scholarship and Joyce McKenna Scholarship. She completed her Bachelor of Music (Honours) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music with First Class Honours.

Tumarkin has always believed in song as a language of social reckoning, mourning and healing. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine she has shared Ukrainian traditional music with audiences across Australia, including at the Sydney Opera House, and with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She has also proudly premiered art song by female composers – past and present – from Ukraine, Czechia and Iran.

Recently, she was awarded the First Prize Female Aria at the 2023 Ringwood Eisteddfod, and Robert Salzer Foundation Scholarship for best female singer at the 2023 Liederfest.