Performer Biography

Shawn Roth

Shawn Roth, 21, tenor, is a senior at Oberlin Conservatory under the tutelage of Salvatore Champagne. After having made his professional debut with the Cleveland Orchestra as der Lakai in a celebrated production of Ariadne auf Naxos in January 2019, Roth returned to Severance Hall in February to sing Papageno’s aria, “Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja,” as part of their Family Concert series. Following his performance as Mr. X.E. in the acclaimed second-ever collaborative run of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning chamber opera, Angel’s Bone, Roth appeared onstage as Sam in Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti during Oberlin Conservatory’s celebration of the composer’s centennial.

Drawing acclaim for his, “Rich, flexible voice,” and, “Strong vocal and acting chops,” (Cleveland Classical), his other performances at Oberlin include Pa in Proving Up, for which Roth again collaborated with composer Missy Mazzoli, Don Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Le Geôlier in Dialogues des Carmélites, and Le Surintendant in Cendrillon.

Mr. Roth has performed as a fellow at the Music Academy of the West where he studied under leading pedagogues Bill Schuman and Gerald Martin Moore. While there, he collaborated with composer Jennifer Higdon in the West Coast premiere of her opera, Cold Mountain. A frequent recitalist, he has been featured in the Danenberg Honors Recital Series at Oberlin, and also regularly performs in the Cleveland area with Stars in the Classics, a non-profit organization committed to providing intimate performance opportunities for emerging, world-class musicians in Northeast Ohio and beyond.

Upcoming engagements include: the 2019 Oberlin Orientation Honors Recital, and Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Oberlin. In addition to his fellowship at Music Academy of the West, he has also participated in the Yale School of Music’s Norfolk Festival as a fellow, the Cornish-American Song Institute, and the Oberlin in Italy program. He has performed in masterclass with world-renowned artists and pedagogues such as Marilyn Horne, Brian Zeger, Gerald Martin Moore, Roger Vignoles, George Shirley, and Lawrence Brownlee. During Marilyn Horne’s 2018 residency at Oberlin, she named Roth a Rubin Scholar. He is a host of Making CONnections, the official community radio station of Oberlin Conservatory.