As a full lyric soprano who draws audiences in with a unique warm timbre, exceptional musicality, and intelligent wit, I sing to inspire kindness, heart, and joy through the mediums of opera, operetta, musical theater, and art song. Whether playing the part of the warm and loving mother, the grand queen, or the comedic sidekick, my time performing is to touch hearts, communicate and transport.
PC: Sarah Morreim
Colleen O’Shaughnessy, soprano, draws audiences in with her unique lirico-spinto timbre, exceptional musicality, and intelligent wit. In 2022, Ms. O’Shaughnessy sang the role of Madame Larina in Eugene Oregon with Skylark Opera and covered the Mother in their December production of Amahl and the Night Visitors. In 2021 she collaborated with Really Spicy Opera for a workshop reading of the Gilbert & Sullivan satire, The Succession Crisis, and performed and recorded unique new works by composer Emily Boyajian. Ms. O’Shaughnessy won an Artist Relief Grant from Springboard for the Arts in 2020 for her outstanding outreach video singing work with Alzheimer’s patients. Pre-Covid shutdown, she performed regularly with Journey North Opera’s OperaTease series and was warmly welcomed as a Featured Artist in recital for Thursday Musical of Minnesota.
Other recent career highlights include covering Micaëla with the Lakes Area Music Festival, a gender-bending Hänselin Garden of Song Opera’s Hänsel and Gretel and numerous concerts and new aria showcases with Twin Cities Opera on Tap. She is the section leader for the Holy Childhood Schola and Orchestra in St. Paul and was pleased to perform as the soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Mozart’s Missa Solemnis in C major. Besides her passion for performing, Ms. O’Shaughnessy believes in creating community and cultivating opera talent within her local artist network. She is the founder and Executive Director of Opera Reading Project, a rapidly growing and indispensable opera role reading series and professional development resource for Minnesota’s classical singers.
Accolades & Accomplishments
Ms. O’Shaughnessy’s notable career accomplishments include premiering the role of Prudence Peergroup in Gilbert & Sullivan on Wall Street for The International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival; solo performances with the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra and Connecticut’s St. Philip Orchestra; starring in Hartford Opera Theater’s premiere of An Accidental Affair; placing in the semi-finals of Opera Theatre of Connecticut's Amici Competition; and performing Guillot in Offenbach’s rare chamber opera, Le Mariage aux Lanternes, with New York’s Apollo Opera Company. A winner of an Allis Scholarship for Music, Ms. O'Shaughnessy finished in the top ten for both Portland Opera's Eleanor Lieber Awards and the Jenny Lind Competition.
Signature Roles
Signature roles include Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Lady Billows (Albert Herring), Georgetta (Il tabarro), La Contessa Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), La badessa (Suor Angelica), Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors ), Mrs. Gobineau (The Medium) and Josephine (HMS Pinafore). A gifted cross-over performer, Ms. O'Shaughnessy includes the Mother Abbess, Nettie Fowler, Jack’s Mother and Margaret Johnson in her repertoire. She has worked with companies such as Empire Opera, Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, Opera Company of Brooklyn, Hillhouse Opera Company, and the Schubert Club of Connecticut. Ms. O'Shaughnessy has concertized extensively throughout the Northeast and Midwest and specializes in singing Irish music for cultural events and private gatherings.
PC: Therese Steinhoff
Colleen is a graduate of Boston University with a Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance and received her undergraduate vocal training with a degree in Music Education from St. Olaf College. Ms. O’Shaughnessy completed apprentice programs at OperaWorks in Los Angeles, Intermezzo in Connecticut, and at the Wesley Balk Opera Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota. She studies voice with Beth Roberts in New York and John DeHaan in Minnesota.
As a good Irish-American, Ms. O’Shaughnessy can be found offstage tapping her toe to an Irish jig, drinking a coffee with Bailey’s, and looking for lucky four-leaf clovers.