BIOGRAPHY
"Shoremount-Obra...sang with sensitivity yet full-throated power, her voice shaking the rafters of the small building. It's a tremendous experience hearing a voice that could fill a theater of 3,000 so up close and personal." --Huffington Post
Top Prize Winner of the 2018 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition Wagner Division, Soprano AMY SHOREMOUNT-OBRA has garnered major attention for her work on the operatic and concert stage, having been hailed by Opera News as having sung a “really outstanding (Donna) Anna, accurate and with exciting thrust, including the best vengeance aria I’ve heard since Carol Vaness’ heyday." Her voice has been described as one that portrays “sensitivity yet full-throated power” (Huffington Post) and that “allies dramatic weight, particularly in the upper register, with virtuoso flexibility... <and with> superb legato….<and> roulades and scales... <that become> truly expressive gestures” (Opera News) while it “thrills with laser-like top notes” (BostonClassicalReview.com).
Ms. Shoremount-Obra made her much-anticipated Metropolitan Opera Debut in October 2014 as “First Lady” in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, singing all nine performances of the opera, three of which were Sirius XM Satellite Broadcasts. She recently returned to the Met for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons for the revival of the English version of the opera in the same role. In previous seasons at the Met, she has covered the roles of "Donna Anna" in Don Giovanni, "Anna" in Nabucco, “Clotilde” in Norma, “Aksinya” in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and “Queen of the Night” (also in Die Zauberflöte). Ms. Shoremount-Obra’s other recent operatic appearances have included her debut in the title role of “Turandot” with Opera Grand Rapids, her debut in the title role of “Salome” with the Southern Illinois Music Festival, the title role of Daphne (R. Strauss, cvr) with The American Symphony Orchestra, “Leonore” in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the LA Philharmonic (workshop) and Grand Harmonie in Princeton, NJ, the title role of “Maria” in Pacini’s Maria, Regina d’Inghilterra and “Marchesa” in Verdi’s Un Giorno di Regno with Odyssey Opera of Boston, the title role in Tosca and “Rosalinde” in Die Fledermaus with Maryland Opera in Baltimore, “Freia” (cvr) in Wagner's "Das Rheingold" with the New York Philharmonic, “Donna Anna” in Don Giovanni with Opera Las Vegas, The Savannah Voice Festival, and NYC's new Venture Opera and “First Lady” in The Magic Flute with the Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa, California.
Important concert debuts include her Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 as the Soprano Soloist in Brahms’ Requiem with The Juilliard Orchestra under the baton of the late James DePreist, and in 2016, her debut at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center as the Soprano Soloist in Verdi's Requiem with the National Chorale. She made her debut in Alnö, Sweden in June 2023 with Pianist Christopher Cooley performing a recital of Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn, Duke, Quilter and Obradors. During the summer of 2016, she appeared in Honolulu, on The Big Island of Hawaii and in Maui with Virtuoso Violinist Eric Silberger, Louisiana Philharmonic Cellist Daniel Lelchuk and Canadian Pianist Ian Parker for the first season of the Hawaii International Music Festival, a festival she co-founded. Her performance at the Blaisdell Concert Hall included a collaboration with world renowned Taiko Artist Kenny Endo. In 2018, she made her debut with the Orquesta Filarmónica del Estado de Chihuahua in Mexico in a solo concert of arias from Il Trovatore, Nabucco, Tannhäuser, and Turandot. Ms. Shoremount-Obra made her European Operatic debut in 2004 as “Ifigenia” in Handel’s Oreste at the Spoleto Festival, Italy.
Additional recent solo concert engagements include Verdi's Requiem (2023) in Columbia, SC and Greenville, SC with Varna International under the baton of Maestro Gregory Buchalter, Beethoven's 9th Symphony (2022) with the Eric Philharmonic, and in a concert of Puccini with Knoxville Opera (2022) and with Maryland Opera (2023). In New York she has performed Fauré Requiem (2013) and Schubert Mass in G (2016) at Carnegie Hall with MidAmerica Productions as well as appearances at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York as part of the Winners' Concert for the Gerda Lissner Foundation (2018), and with the late Glen Roven for his concert at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall titled "Three Baritones” (2018). She has also appeared in concert throughout the United States (Chicago, Illinois; Prescott, Arizona; Honolulu, Hawaii; Portland, Oregon; Savannah, Georgia; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and in Chihuahua, Mexico among many other places.)
Ms. Shoremount-Obra appears as First Lady on the Metropolitan Opera's 2017 recording of Mozart's The Magic Flute featuring Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, Kathryn Lewek, Charles Castronovo and Nathan Gunn with Maestro Evan Rogister and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Ms. Shoremount-Obra is a 2004 New York Regional Winner and National Semi-Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She has also won numerous awards from other organizations, including the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, which she was awarded at her graduation from The Juilliard School and has since been supported with supplemental grants from the same foundation. She is the 2016 winner of the Ursula Springer Award from the Wagner Society of New York and together with pianist Christopher Cooley, the 2019 Second Prize Winner in the Joy In Singing International Art Song Competition. She is a native of New Jersey and holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music (BM, MM) and The Juilliard School (AD). She continues her vocal studies in New York as a student of Diana Soviero. In August 2017, Ms. Shoremount-Obra was appointed Adjunct Assistant Professor of Voice at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. She enjoys teaching both undergraduate and graduate level students there while she continues her active performing career.