An up-and-coming singer who’s making her name in the world of professional opera attributes her success, first and foremost, to the place where she grew up — Hampton Roads.
Shannon Crowley, a 25-year-old Virginia Beach native, was recently selected to attend one of the most prestigious opera training programs in the world: Merola in San Francisco.
Out of 1,500 international applicants, Crowley was one of 28 artists and one of only seven sopranos to make this year’s cut.
“I really do give the full credit of the start of my career to having such amazing exposure to opera at a young age,” she said, “which is from the Governor’s School.”
She began singing with the Virginia Children’s Chorus at age 5. At 13, she auditioned and was admitted to The Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, where she studied classical singing with Alan Fischer, the longtime chair of its vocal music department.
“She came in as a ninth grader and just devoured music in her lessons and was very, very studious — just one of my best students,” said Fischer, who retired recently. “I loved working with her.”
He described Crowley’s voice as a “beautiful, lyric” soprano and once based an entire production on the strength of her sound.
“We did a production of an opera called ‘Suor Angelica,’ literally, because I had Shannon who could sing it,” he recalled, adding it was an advanced role for a teenager.
She graduated from the Governor’s School and Virginia Beach’s Ocean Lakes High School in 2018 before earning a bachelor’s degree in music from Michigan State University. After graduating from Rice University with a master’s degree in music, she was hired by the Pittsburgh Opera, where she is a resident singer.
At Merola this summer, she’ll train for about three months with some of the best coaches in her field.
“I think it gives you a lot of legitimacy,” she said of the program.
“Just having the name on your resume, I think people take you more seriously before you even walk into a room. They’re like, ‘OK.’ They know that you’re a good singer, the real deal.”
Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com
