Sam Shepperson

Sam Shepperson is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and is currently the director of the Opera Theatre at UNM.  Active in opera, oratorio, and art song, he has been a soloist with such groups as the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Fe Symphony, Music in the Mountains, the Orchestra of Santa Fe, the Colorado Opera Festival, Opera Southwest, Emerald City Opera, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and he has performed numerous roles with the UNM Opera Theater as well as the role of Ben Budge in the Santa Fe Opera’s production of The Beggar’s Opera.

For several years, Sam toured a production for the Santa Fe Opera outreach program. His opera résumé includes such roles as Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Leo in Regina, Lindoro in L’italiana in Algeri, Camille in The Merry Widow, Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Dr. Caius in Falstaff, and Little Bat in Susannah. His oratorio résumé includes Judas in Judas Maccabeus, Samson in Samson, tenor soloist in Carmina Burana, Florentino in Cantata Criolla, and standard repertoire such as Messiah, Elijah, The Seasons, Mozart’s Requiem, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  

He has appeared under the baton of Margaret Hillis, Neal Stulberg, William Kirschke, John Crosby, Donald Neuen, Stewart Robertson, Michael Butterman, Guillermo Figueroa, Anthony Barrese, and Jorge Pérez-Gómez. In summer 1995, he made his international debut as tenor soloist in Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Mass with the Symphony of the Americas. In 2012, he made his Lincoln Center debut in New York as tenor soloist in René Clausen’s Requiem.