Erin Shields - soprano, piano
"The ringing soprano of leading lady Erin Shields is a sound as close to perfection as exists on earth — exquisite, yet unpretentious, full of humanity and humor and joy and sorrow."
~Carolyn Hidy, Clark Fork Valley Press
A graduate of the prestigious Indiana University School of Music, Erin also studied voice in Vienna, Austria. Erin embarked on her professional career as a singer at age 17 when she sang the National Anthem for The Chicago Bulls. Since then, her vocal versatility has allowed her to perform a number of different genres all over the country.
Erin has performed leading roles for many reputable music festivals, opera companies and orchestras. Most notable roles: Eliza in My Fair Lady, Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods, Chava in Fiddler on the Roof, Okugata in A Story of Three Women, Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème, Gianetta in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Ramiro in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, covered the role of The Mother in Menotti’s Amahl & the Night Visitors at Lincoln Center and performed the role of Marina Vlady in the world premiere of Let Us Fly, the life and music of Vladimir Vysotsky, working with TONY Award Winner Larry Hochman (Book of Mormon on Broadway) and director Moni Yakim (Jacques Brel is Alive & Well - Off-Broadway) at the 92nd St Y in New York City.
Erin placed as one of the top five grand finalists in the American Traditions Competition in Savannah, Georgia. She has performed for many charitable organizations, including the Global AIDS Alliance at Joe's Pub, NYC along with the Brick Church School’s African Dream Academy benefit hosted by news icon Katie Couric.
She has sung numerous times with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night's Dream starring Marcia Gay Harden and Campbell Scott and worked with such renowned conductors as Neeme Järvi, Sir John Elliott Gardner, Sir Neville Marriner and Leon Botstein. Erin's CD, I'd Rather Be Lonely, features songs from the Great American Songbook and some of the best jazz musicians NYC has to offer.
David Shenton - Piano, violin, arrangements, back-up vocals
"Shenton's one-man violin and piano duet makes walking on water, by comparison,
seem a mere trifle."
~Roy Sander (BackStage)
David Shenton is an English pianist, violinist, composer, and arranger based in New York City. As pianist/music director David has worked with many renowned members of the music profession in many genres, including Vanessa Williams, Tony Bennett, Norm Lewis, Zach Levi, Sierra Boggess, Denyce Graves, Alfie Bøe, Renée Fleming, Sherrill Milnes, Marilyn Maye, Liz Callaway, Sir André Previn, Michael Feinstein, Amanda McBroom, Katie Couric, Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, over 300 Broadway performers and for numerous cabaret artists. David enjoyed a 7 year long close working collaborative relationship with lyricist Martin Charnin (creator and lyricist of, among many others, Annie.) until Charnin's death in 2019.
A prolific arranger, David has worked for Abbey Road & CTS Studios (London), on Hollywood movies, West End & Broadway shows. He arranged the music for Howard Blake's The Snowman, which has run in the West End since 1998, and has orchestrated several shows in Germany, as well as the newest musical by the 'Annie' team, Robin Hood' The Untold Story. In August 2013 David created and orchestrated the original arrangements for a new and exciting group, Opus X, whose début album featured special guest, trumpeter Chris Botti. David began writing music at the age of 9 and has written hundreds of pieces including a symphony, 2 piano concertos, 2 violin concertos and 2 string quartets all composed before the age of 11. Recent works include a double jazz violin concerto, several songs, and 5 musicals, all of which have premiered in New York. For more information about David's compositions please click here.
David’s CDs are widely available and his solo piano CDs, Sunnyside Blues and Social Flutterby, have won high acclaim, as well as several awards. David wrote his first film score for Franc Reyes' drama, Beauty, which was screened in Hollywood, Miami and New York. His latest score - a documentary entitled Amy's Victory Dance - was picked up by Amazon Prime. This documentary has won in excess of 45 International Film Awards, including Best Score at the Japan International Film Festival. David teaches extensively and, as a coach, accompanist and teaching professor, has been on the faculties of NYU, The New School, The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, St. Thomas Choir School and Grace Church School. He is also a composer in residence in the advanced class of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. Born in Rotherham (South Yorkshire), England, David studied violin and piano at The Royal College of Music, London from where he graduated with the highest honours.
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Adam Cannedy - baritone
Hailed for his “sonorous and secure voice” (Opera Today), baritone Adam Cannedy is quickly making his way on opera stages across the country. A champion of contemporary opera, Adam has collaborated with and performed for living composers including Carlisle Floyd, Ned Rorem, Oliver Knussen, William Bolcom, Stephen Paulus, Simon Sargon, Richard Wargo, Peter Ash, Tom Cipullo, and Philip Glass. Highlights of his work in contemporary opera include Oliver Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are (role of Rooster Wild Thing) as a guest artist with the Tanglewood Music Center's Contemporary Music Festival and his subsequent Lincoln Center debut with New York City Opera; the staged premiere of William Bolcom's Lucrezia (Chucho); Stephen Paulus's The Postman Always Rings Twice (Frank Chambers); the world premiere of Simon Sargon’s The Singing Violin (Baron Frederick); the world premiere of Peter Ash'sThe Golden Ticket (Oompa Loompa) with Opera Theatre of St. Louis; and the European premieres of both The Golden Ticket and Richard Wargo's Winners(Ballad Singer) during the 2010 season of Ireland's Wexford Festival Opera, the occasion of Mr. Cannedy's European debut.
Throughout 2016, Adam continued to explore American opera of all vintages, beginning with his role debut as LeBlanc in the revival of Goodwin and Rice's 1874 American opera buffa Evangeline with the Longfellow Chorus in Portland, Maine. He joined Light Opera of New York to perform the role of Otis Hooper in Jerome Kern's Sally, a production recorded by Albany Records. (Albany Records has also recorded and released Mr. Cannedy's Light Opera of New York debut engagement as John Blake in Victor Herbert's The Only Girl.) In October 2016, Mr. Cannedy joined the Center for Contemporary Opera for the world premiere of Louis Karchin's Jane Eyre, in which he performed the roles of Mason and Mr. Briggs. In 2017, Adam made his debut with Opera San Jose in Puts' and Campbell's Pulitzer-Prize winning opera Silent Night; two other role debuts in 2017 included that of Older Thompson in Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied with Opera Upper West and Count Almaviva in Darius Milhaud's The Guilty Mother with On Site Opera in New York.
In recent seasons, Adam has enjoyed a particularly strong affiliation with Opera Omaha, joining the company as Bello in La fanciulla del West, Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Marullo in Rigoletto, and Moralès in Carmen. He has joined Atlanta Opera as Marullo in Rigoletto and Le Dancaïre in Carmen, Lyric Opera of Virginia also as Le Dancaïre, and First Coast Opera as Masetto in Don Giovanni. Mr. Cannedy has fulfilled artist apprenticeships with Virginia Opera, Lyric Opera of Virginia, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Central City Opera, and Opera North. He was a 2011 prize winner in the Birmingham Opera Competition, a finalist in the Dallas Opera Guild Competition, and most recently won the People's Choice Award at the American Traditions Competition in Savannah, GA.
Additional performance credits include Cosi fan tutte (Guglielmo and Don Alfonso), A Little Night Music (Count Carl Magnus), Romeo et Juliette (Lord Capulet), Carmen (Escamillo),Susannah (Olin Blitch), Oklahoma! (Will Parker), The Music Man (Oliver Hix), Camelot(Lancelot), and Sweeney Todd (Anthony).
Brian Giebler - tenor
(sub for Adam Cannedy)
Praised for his “lovely tone and deep expressivity” by The New York Times, GRAMMY® nominated tenor Brian Giebler radiates “shine and clarity” (Opera News) in every phrase using “his high-placed tenor with great skill” (Opera Magazine). His debut solo album a lad's love (Bridge Records, 2020) garnered high praise from significant industry publications including Gramophone, Opera News (Critics Choice), and San Francisco Classical Voice, debuted on the Billboard charts, and earned him his first GRAMMY® Award nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. His 2022/23 season begins leading a fully staged production of Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard with Music at Trinity Wall Street. Then, Mr. Giebler will debut with the Rhode Island Philharmonic singing Handel’s Messiah; and make return appearances with Santa Fe Pro Musica, Boston Early Music Festival, Baltimore Choral Society, and in a performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of NY.
“The sweetness of Giebler's impressive high tenor” and his "expressive and elegant phrasing" (Cleveland Classical) have been heard as Apollo in Handel's Semele with The English Concert and The Clarion Choir in an international tour under Harry Bicket at the Theatre des Champs-Elysées (Paris), the Barbican (London), and Carnegie Hall (New York); as Adam in REV 23 at the Prototype Festival (dir. James Darrah; cond. Daniela Candillari); and in the comedic role of Arnalta in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea with Boston Baroque, joining a star-studded cast including Anthony Roth Costanzo and Amanda Forsythe. Last season highlights included a tour of the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals singing Monteverdi with Apollo’s Fire, Haydn’s Creation with Santa Fe Pro Musica, and returning with Mark Morris Dance Group, this time to sing the choreographer’s iconic version of Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
He has performed Stravinsky with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst; Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Trinity Wall Street; Mozart at both Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center; and Bach Cantatas with the Grand Rapids Symphony and Handel & Haydn Society. Regularly engaged for Handel’s Messiah, he has performed the work with Music of the Baroque (available on recording), the Charlotte, Memphis, and Virginia Symphonies, as well as at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of NY and Musica Sacra. Mr. Giebler sang and recorded the role of Iff the Water Genie in Wuorinen's Haroun and the Sea of Stories with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and made his debut with Boston Early Music Festival in Germany singing in Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs and de Lalande’s Les Fontaines.