American Tenor Norman Shankle is currently enjoying worldwide acclaim for his portrayals of Mozart and Rossini’s most famous tenors. The Boston Globe called Shankle “a real find, a singer of elegance, grace and conviction,” and the San Francisco Chronicle praised him equally as “clearly a singer to watch.”
This season, Mr. Shankle will be featured with the National Philharmonic’s performances of Berlioz’s Requiem and Handels’ Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Messiah with Glacier Symphony Orchestra, and Sanctuary Road with Penn Square Music Festival. Operatic engagements include Baltimore Opera’s The Turn of the Screw in the role of Quint. Last season’s engagements included the tenor solo in Mozart’s Requiem and Adolphus Hailstork’s A Knee On a Neck, as well as Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, for the National Philharmonic, Sanctuary Road with North Carolina Opera, it all falls down and The Rift for the Washington National Opera, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for Helena Symphony, Cassio in Otello for Pacific Symphony, and the performance and recording of Damien Geter’s An African American Requiem at the Kennedy Center with the Choral Arts Society of Washington.
In the summer of 2021, Shankle returned to Northern Lights Music Festival as Ramiro in La cenerentola and performed a Gala Concert for Knoxville Opera. Recent engagements also include the role of Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri with Opera Memphis, Ferrando in a concert performance of Cosi fan tutte with the National Philharmonic at the Kennedy Center, Remus in Treemonisha with Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, Lindoro in L’italiana in Algeri with Piedmont Opera, Nick in La fanciulla del West with Opera Colorado, Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Northern Lights Music Festival, sang the tenor soloist in Atlanta Symphony’s concert performances of Bach’s Cantata No. 29 and Vaughn Williams’ Serenade to Music, and in Händel’s Messiah with Boston Baroque, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Phoenix Symphony and the National Philharmonic. He also reprised of the role of Elder Barber/Gus Greenlee in The Summer King, a new opera that explores the life of Josh Gibson, “one of the greatest Negro League baseball players,” with Michigan Opera Theatre a role he had previously created for Pittsburgh Opera.
He joined the Metropolitan Opera for The Enchanted Island, a contemporary take on the 17th-century genre of the pastiche, a Baroque fantasy which brought together arias and ensembles by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, Purcell, and other composers. Prior engagements have also included Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with New Orleans Opera, the Orlando Philharmonic, English National Opera, and with Dresden Semperoper; Nick in La fanciulla del West with Opera Omaha; Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Saratoga; Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and Michigan Opera Theater; Prunier in La rondine with Skylark Opera; Ramiro in La Cenerentola with the Green Mountain Opera Festival; a concert of arias and duets at the Kennedy Center; Messiah with Pacific Symphony and Phoenix Symphony, where he also performed Händel’s Nelsonmesse; and Mozart’s Requiem with the City Choir of Washington.
Previous successes include the title role in Idomeneo and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Opera Festival at Verona, and Reggio Emilia; Ferrando in Così fan tutte with the Netherlands Opera, Palm Beach Opera, and Opera Grand Rapids; Belfiore in La finta giardiniera with Opernhaus Zurich; Gomatz in Zaide with Vienna Festwochen and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York; Ernesto in Don Pasquale and Renaud in Gluck’s Armide with the Komische Oper Berlin; Ernesto in Don Pasquale in his Dallas Opera début and with Le Grand Théâtre de Genève; Cassio in Otello with Palm Beach Opera; Admete in Alceste with Opera Boston; and Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice at the Haydn Festival.
Norman’s vast international concert experience includes Carlo in Rossini’s Armida and Laïos in Enescu’s Œdipe at the Edinburgh International Festival; Händel’s Saul conducted by René Jacobs at Palais de Beaux Arts, Brussels; Tito in La clemenza di Tito with the Münchener Kammerorchester in Amsterdam; and Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings with the International Bach Akademie. US symphonic engagements include Messiah with the Cincinnati Symphony and Houston Symphony Orchestra; Britten’s War Requiem with the San Francisco Choral Society; as well as appearances with the Essen Philharmonic, Choral Arts Society of Washington, and New Century Chamber Orchestra.
Norman began his career with the San Francisco Opera (SFO) in the Merola Opera Program and as an Adler Fellow. He officially made his company début as Valletto in L’incoronazione di Poppea, and subsequently appeared in SFO’s productions of Tristan und Isolde, Don Carlo, Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, Louise, Lucia di Lammermoor, Idomeneo, and Don Giovanni. Norman was selected as a winner of the distinguished ARIA award. Other awards include a Richard Tucker Career Grant, and the McAllister Award.