Alek Shrader
Tenor
The brilliant lyric tenor Alek Shrader made his San Francisco Opera mainstage debut this season, replacing an indisposed Ramon Vargas as Nemorino in two performances of L'Elisir d'Amore.  Currently an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera, he also appeared in Korngold's, Die Tote Stadt, as Arbace in Mozart's Idomeneo, and as Nemorino in student performances of L'Elisir d'Amore. He also sang the role of Almaviva in Opera Cleveland's production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and returned to Opera Theater of St. Louis for Mozart's Il Re Pastore. Mr. Shrader was also a featured soloist in the 2009 Metropolitan Opera Concert in the Park series.

Highly acclaimed by the press for his recent San Francisco recital, as an artist who is "natural and effortless, so different from just about everybody else", he will be featured in two ‘On Wings of Song' recitals in the 2009/2010 season, both sponsored by the Marilyn Horne Foundation.  

Alek  Shrader will make his European debut in the 2009/2010 season as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux. He will also appear as Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and as Egeo in a new production of Giovanni Simon Mayr's, Medea in Corinto, both at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany. At the end of the season, Mr. Shrader will make his Santa Fe Opera debut in the title role of Britten's Albert Herring. Concert appearances will include Messiah with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Mozart Requiem with the Pittsburgh Symphony and St. Louis Symphony.

Alek Shrader made his professional debut as Almaviva in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Opera Theater of St. Louis, where he had spent the previous two summers as a young artist. He has appeared in Rossini's Il Signor Bruschino with the Gotham Chamber Opera, in William Bolcom's A Wedding at the Music Academy of the West, and  participated in Renata Scotto's Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Opera Studio. Shrader's roles in previous seasons have included the title role in Le Comte Ory, Fenton in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Tony in Bernstein's West Side Story, and Ramiro in Rossini's La Cenerentola.

Shrader is the recipient of a Sarah Tucker grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation and a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.