WELCOME to Shannon Mercer's exciting new website! Check
back often as more detailed information is added!
Shannon on tour with "Not the Messiah"
Following it's enormous success at the 2007 Luminato Festival
in Toronto, Eric Idle's Not the Messiah goes on tour - with
Shannon Mercer reprising her role. Shannon will be seen
in Houston (July 17, 18), Wolf Trap, Washington, DC (July
24), Los Angeles (August 1, 2) and Philadelphia (August
12).
US Tour of Eric Idle's
and John du Prez's Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty
Boy)
July 17, 18 Houston, TX: with the Houston Symphony Orchestra
July 24 Washington DC, Wolf Trap: with the National Symphony
Orchestra
August 1, 2 Los Angeles, Hollywood Bowl: with the Los Angeles
Philharmonic
August 12 Philadelphia: Mann Center: with the Philadelphia
Orchestra
Reviews from "Not the Messiah"
"The duet for Brian and Judith as they
are having sex made the simulated orgasm scene in When Harry
Met Sally seem like a weak test run. Soprano Shannon Mercer
and tenor William Ferguson moaned and yelled with increasingly
hysterical abandon - all in good Baroque form, you understand."
(Huston Chronicle, 18 July 2008)
 Seduced
by Sémélé
"Shannon
Mercer shines in Marin Marais's Sémélé" (BBC
Music Magazine, June 2008)
Recent reviews:
"The best singers in the quartet were Mercer and Ainsworth.
Both have bright voices, with fine intonation and an impressive
palette of vocal colours at their disposal." (Tafelmusik
- Globe and Mail, 10 May 2008)
"The soloists were a treat: soprano Shannon Mercer,
her lovely lyric voice soaring beautifully through Haydn's
demanding musical ornaments"
(Tafelmusik - Toronto Star, 8 May
2008)
"To tell the truth, it was a breathtaking experience.
Shannon Mercer, the guest soloist for the afternoon, is
a baroque soprano with a voice designed to express the warmth
of baroque vocal music in its mid-range as well as the lightness
and ice-cracking purity of its highest notes.
Mercer sang two contrasting arias from Tamerlano and then
returned on the second half to sing three of Henry Purcell's
weepiest arias, with heart-rending conviction. Few composers,
even given, as here, the right voice, orchestra and conductor,
weep as convincingly as Purcell in Fairest Isle (King Arthur),
When I Am Laid in Earth (Dido and Aeneas), and the queen
of heartbreakers, O Let Me Weep, Forever Weep (The Fairy
Queen).
Mallon, a truly inspired programmer as well as conductor,
wove these arias and the superb Shannon in between movements
from Purcell's The Gordian Knot - An Overture, Aire, Minuett
and Chacone. Very clever, and very effective." (Nova
Scotia - The Chronicle Herald, 14 April 2008)
Shannon sings in "Mahler's 8th Symphony
"des Mille" with 1,000 performers"
Tune in to hear Shannon perform in Mahler's 8th Symphony
with the OSQ and a total of one thousand performers! The
concert will be broadcast live from Quebec City on Chicago
radio station WFMT 98.7 and on www.wfmt.com Saturday, March
15 at 6:30 - 8:30 pm CST (7:30 - 9:30pm EST)
The concert is one of the centerpieces of cultural celebration
in 2008 as the year marks the 400th birthday of Quebec City
- one of the oldest permanent settlements in North America.
Live concert presentations of this magnitude are the signature
programming of WFMT and the WFMT Radio Network.
Shannon 'brilliant' in Handel's Tamerlano
"The biggest surprise was soprano Shannon Mercer as
Asteria. She is a very fine singer, but in this role she
showed such brilliant acting skills and breath control in
the way she used her voice, that she upgraded for me to
great singer." (Classical 96.3,
February 2008)
NEW RELEASE "Bach and the liturgical year"
 Shannon's
new CD, Bach and the liturgical year,
was released February 26. Check back for reviews and audio
samples.
Catch Shannon on CBC TV's Living in Ottawa - second
air date February 1st, 2008!
Shannon stopped by the Living in Ottawa show to chat about her career and singing
baroque music in particular - Wednesday, December 12th at 1 PM on CBC Television,
channel 8 in Ottawa. For those not in Ottawa, you can catch the episode online as
it is posted for one week after its original airdate.
Upcoming Bach CD
Shannon has just completed her 3rd recording for Analekta. After their widely praised
recording of works by Mondonville, Shannon and Luc Beausejour have once again teamed up
for a CD featuring Bach’s works for soprano and harpsichord. Check back regularly for
release details, projected to be in February 2008.
Sémélé available soon on CD
Shannon’s highly acclaimed performance in the title role of Marin Marais’s
Baroque lyric tragedy Sémélé with Le Concert Spirituel under Hervé Niquet
will be available worldwide soon. Released in November 2007 in France, North American
audiences can expect to find the Glossa label recording in stores in January 2008.
Sémélé is the final recording in Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel’s trilogy
of baroque French operas based on mythological female figures.
The Shannon Bag
Ottawa leather designer Michael Rowland was so mesmerized by Shannon’s voice when
he heard her in concert that he has named one of his bags after her. Shannon joins a list
of other famous Canadian women Michael’s collection, including Shania, Alanis, and
Joni Mitchell. Click here for more details, and to view and buy
"Shannon's Bag"!
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