Sharon Shaffer pic





SHARON SHAFFER, SOPRANO

 

Soprano Sharon Shaffer made her American Operatic debut at the age of nineteen and has since gone on to establish herself as a versatile artist, appearing in numerous leading operatic roles, as an orchestral soloist, and in recitals throughout the United States and Europe.  

 

Ms. Shaffer’s outstanding accomplishments have been recognized with prizes and awards, including the Robinson Professional Engagement Award in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and International Young Singer of the Year award at the International Musical Eisteddfod and Competition in Llangollen Wales.

 

 

Locally, Ms. Shaffer made her Severance Hall debut in 2004 singing the Dvorak Te Deum with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Chorus, James Gaffigan, conducting. Since then she has appeared with COYO in Mozart’s Coronation Mass. In February 2007 she made her Cleveland Orchestra debut as soprano soloist in Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. She was soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass and in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Cleveland State University Orchestra and Chorus, Dr. Betsy Burleigh conducting. She has sung Mozart’s Requiem with the P.A.N.D. Orchestra and Chorus, Robert Porco conducting. She has performed the Lord Nelson Mass with the Choral Arts Society of Cleveland, with whom she also appeared as soloist in their performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Suburban Symphony Orchestra, Martin Kessler conducting. She has appeared under the baton of Robert Porco in Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem and in Haydn’s Creation with Robert Page and the Cleveland Consortium of Churches.

 

 

Ms. Shaffer’s operatic roles include Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Bastienne in Bastiennne und Bastien, Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte, and Rita in Donizetti’s Rita with Opera Circle. As a recitalist, Ms. Shaffer was featured in October 2008 on the “Live from WCLV” series. She is the conductor of HaZamir Cleveland, the International Jewish High School Choir, and has a busy voice studio in Beachwood and in Solon Ohio. Ms. Shaffer studied voice with Noriko Fujii-Paukert at Cleveland State University where she received her MMA degree in spring 2009.