ABOUT
British mezzo-soprano Jessie Shulman is a versatile and dynamic performer praised for her "warm, velvety sound" (Lauri's List) and "plum-velvet mezzo voice" (Broadway World). With an extensive background in opera and classical repertoire, she is an avid performer of concert works with orchestra, art song, choral and chamber music.
As a professional SAG-AFTRA session singer, Jessie’s voice can be heard in many major motion pictures including The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Strange World, Mulan, Frozen II, Jungle Cruise, The Lion King, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and The Last Jedi, The Secret Life of Pets 2, and many more. Other ensemble projects include background vocals for Da Baby's performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, the opening credits of Outlander (Season 5: "The Skye Boat Song"), and the national DIRECTV commercial, “More For Your Thing: Signs”. Jessie's keen musicianship, stylistic versatility, and adaptability make her invaluable to any recording or performance project.
Upcoming solo performances include Mozart's Requiem (Mountainside Master Chorale), and Ravel's Chansons Madécasses as part of the Summer in Paris Chamber Music Festival with The New Hollywood String Quartet and the Da Camera Society. Recent live performances include Respighi's Il Tramonto with the Fiato Quartet, Jessie’s debut with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for their Baroque Conversations series, and mezzo-soprano soloist in Duruflé's Requiem with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall, in which her rendition of ‘Pié Jesu’ was hailed as “amazing” (Seen and Heard International), and her voice "soared with melting ease.” (San Francisco Classical Voice).
As a roster member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Jessie has performed as alto soloist in Handel's Messiah under the direction of maestro Grant Gershon, where she "demonstrated her vocal versatility," (LA Excites). Jessie also partnered with the acclaimed Fiato Quartet for performances of Respighi's Il Tramonto and Barber's Dover Beach, and reprised the Respighi for The Music Guild's 74th season. 2018 also saw Jessie make her debut with Pacific Opera Project as the "sagaciously flirtatious" (LA Times) Madama La Rose in Rossini's La gazzetta, the second ever U.S. staging of the work. In the 2017/18 season, Jessie was alto soloist in the LA Master Chorale’s annual Messiah Sing-Along at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Jessie has sung under maestros Gustavo Dudamel, Grant Gershon, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, and many others. She has sung with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Other performances and projects include Third Noble Orphan in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier (Cincinnati Opera), Tisbe in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Center Stage Opera), mezzo-soprano soloist in Berlioz’s Les nuits d'été (Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra), mezzo-soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem (Bob Cole Conservatory Symphony Orchestra), alto soloist in Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 (San Bernardino Symphony), and a studio recording of Ravel's Chansons madécasses and Falla's Psyché set for commercial release next year.
Jessie holds a Master of Music degree in Voice from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she studied with Kenneth Shaw, and won the Emelie M. Dieterle Memorial Scholarship. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in Opera Performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), where she studied with Tim MacDougall. Jessie’s interpretation of the songs of Mahler and Brahms won her the 2011 Harold Heiberg Liedersänger Preis at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Jessie is an alumna of the Aspen Opera Theater Center, OperaWorks Advanced Artist Program, and a former member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Music of the Baroque, and the Cincinnati Opera Chorus.
Born and raised in England, Jessie grew up in an extremely musical family of classical string players and singers. She moved to California in 2000, and currently resides in Pasadena with her husband and their Blue Heeler, Nellie.