MARK SHANAHAN
Artistic Director
Mark Shanahan, of Irish parentage, studied at Chetham’s school of Music and London
University before joining the post-graduate conducting course at the Royal Academy of Music as the Sir Henry Wood conducting Scholar. He won the NAYO Conducting Competition for European Music Year.
His orchestral work includes broadcasts and concerts with the BBC, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTE Concert Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, Orchestre Filarmonica de Gran Canaria, Netherlands Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Georges Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Northern Philharmonia. In the UK, operatic productions include Otello, La bohème, The Barber of Seville, The Force of Destiny, Ernani and Tosca for English National Opera; and Rigoletto and La Traviata for Opera North. Mark has conducted for Opera Ireland, Grange Park and the Wexford Festival.
Concert work has included performances at the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican and Royal Albert Hall, London, in wide-ranging repertoire from La Damnation de Faust and Verdi’s Requiem to Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben with Forest Philharmonic. International engagements include Tosca, Death in Venice, Nabucco and Simon Boccanegra for Oper Frankfurt; Mikado at La Fenice, Venice and La Traviata for Nationale Reisopera, Holland. He made his French debut with Nantes-Angers Opera in 2007 with their acclaimed production of Jenůfa, which was awarded the Claude Rostand Critique award. Mark returned for further productions of Così fan tutte, The Rape of Lucretia and The Makropulos Case.
Recent engagements include La bohème and La Clemenza di Tito for Marseilles, Jenůfa for Lille and Adriana Lecouvreur for Oper Frankfurt.
Mark is Head of Music at the National Opera Studio and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra.
