A recent graduate of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Jordan Shanahan has already attracted the attention of the Metropolitan Opera, who engaged him for their productions of  Satyagraha by Philip Glass,  Dr. Atomic by John Adams and Hamlet by Thomas.  Other companies who have engaged his services include the Santa Fe Opera and the Netherlands Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera,  Orlando Opera, and Natchez Opera.  This spring, he will sing Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor for Opera Cleveland and the Green Mountain Opera Festival.

His repertoire includes forty roles that encompass a variety of musical styles, periods and vocal demands, including baroque operas of Cavalli (La Calisto) plus world premieres of important new works (An American Tragedy).  Other notable roles in his repertoire include Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Silvio in I Pagliacci, andJoe in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking.

His reputation has been furthered by consistent success in important competitions, including awards of 1st place (or it’s equivalent) by the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Loren Zachary Society, the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, the George London Foundation, the Denver Lyric Opera Guild,  the Metropolitan Opera National Council, and the Union League of Chicago.

On the concert stage,  Mr. Shanahan has enjoyed success in recitals in New York, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Portland Oregon, Seattle, and also in The Netherlands, and France. He has appeared as an orchestral soloist with the Honolulu Symphony, the Orlando Philharmonic, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Mr. Shanahan’s recent recordings include two CD’s of the music of Thomas Pasatieri; the title role the one act opera Signor Deluso on the Grammy nominated “Divas of a Certain Age”, and “Songbook” a collection of songs both available from Albany Records.  He is also featured in the Netherlands Opera production of Don Carlo available on DVD from Opus Arte.

Mr. Shanahan was born and raised in Hawai’i, where he appeared in several plays and musicals with local companies, and was an accomplished musician.  He received a scholarship to the University of Hawai’i and studied trombone and composition.  On the advice of his trombone teacher he began studying voice as a way of improving his musical skills during his first year at UH, and was soon invited to join Hawai’i Opera Theatre, initially as a chorister, and later as a member of the Mae Zenke Orvis Opera Studio..  In `1998, he matriculated at Temple University in Philadelphia and sang five leading roles there over the next three years.