“Her soprano is bright and agile, and she uses vibrato and ornamentation vividly to extract telling nuances from words and music.” (Gramophone)

“One of Toronto’s classical treasures, soprano Shannon Mercer…shapes long, arching melodies with the unforced ease of someone sipping their second Long Island iced tea. This is a pool of song one wants to swim around in for hours.” (Toronto Star)

“I was immediately captivated by Mercer’s singing and could not stop listening or write a single word of comment until the entire cycle was finished. Yes, she’s that good… Every phrase is caressed so lovingly, the music emerging from her throat with a pearl-like shimmer and the dynamics changes so tastefully and subtly applied, that she makes of each song a special event…You keep waiting for the spell to break, but it never does. This is the work of a master artist.” (Fanfare)

Recognized for the luminosity and effortless agility of her voice, as well as her commanding stage presence and profound acting ability, Canadian soprano Shannon Mercer enthusiastically embraces a range of repertoire from early to contemporary music, from Francesca Caccini and Monteverdi to John Beckwith and Ana Sokolovic. Shannon maintains a busy and challenging performance calendar of opera, concert, and recital engagements throughout North America and Europe while also sustaining an active recording presence, capturing some rarely performed works.

Recent highlights feature appearances with the Boston Early Music Festival including the title role in Francesca Caccini’s opera Alcina, in Monteverdi’s Orfeo and l’Incoronazione di Poppea, with the Ensemble Caprice in Montreal, Washington, D.C. and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with Catacoustic Consort in Cincinnati, in Berg’s Seven Early Songs and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the East Texas Symphony, Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Bach Sinfonia in Washington D.C., and “American Dream” with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra.

Much in demand for her interpretation of contemporary music, Shannon has performed the world première of a new work by Canadian composer Chris Paul Harmon with Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra, in an extended run with Necessary Angel Theatre Company and Canadian Stage’s All But Gone: A Beckett Rhapsody, and has appeared in several works by renowned Canadian composer Ana Sokolovic.

Shannon’s discography includes Trobairitz, a new disc containing songs set to poems by female troubadours in the South of France, the 2014 Juno-nominated Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and Palej’s The Poet and the War, two recordings of Bach’s St. John Passion, the Juno-Award winning Gloria: Vivaldi’s Angels, Vivaldi – The Return of the Angels, Salsa Baroque, O Viva Rosa, Bach and the Liturgical Year, Wales ~ The Land of Song, and others. She appears on DVD in Alexina Louie’s comic operas Burnt Toast and Mulroney: The Opera, and in Monty Python funny-man Eric Idle’s hit Not the Messiah.