ABOUT
Mezzo-soprano Jessie Shulman is an accomplished SAG-AFTRA studio singer, concert soloist and chamber musician based in Los Angeles. Praised for her “warm, velvety sound”, Jessie has developed a career as a versatile and sought-after artist, gaining recognition for her expressive vocals and captivating performances. She currently sings as a frequent soloist and roster member of the Grammy® winning Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Opera Chorus.
Jessie’s voice can be heard in numerous major motion pictures including Despicable Me 4, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mulan, Frozen II, The Lion King, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and The Last Jedi, and many more. Other recording projects include BGVs for Da Baby's performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, the opening credits of the hit TV show Outlander (Season 5: "The Skye Boat Song"), and the national DIRECTV commercial, “More For Your Thing: Signs”. Jessie's keen musicianship, stylistic versatility, strong sight-reading skills, and ability to effortlessly blend into an ensemble make her an invaluable addition to any live performance or studio recording.
Recent solo highlights include Martinů's Nový Špalíček with The New Hollywood String Quartet Summer of Bohemia Chamber Music Festival, the release of film composer Cliff Eidelman’s Symphony No. 2 recording (featured mezzo soloist), Mozart selections with Bach Collegium San Diego, and Dido's Lament with The Golden Bridge. 2023 highlights include alto soloist in Handel's Messiah with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, mezzo-soprano soloist in Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, live at the Microsoft Theater, Ravel's Chansons madécasses as part of the Summer of Paris Chamber Music Festival with The New Hollywood String Quartet and the Da Camera Society, and Mozart's Requiem with Mountainside Master Chorale. Previous engagements 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 multiple times 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. Jessie has sung under maestri Gustavo Dudamel, Grant Gershon, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Susanna Mälkki, Michael Tilson Thomas, and many others. She has sung with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Other notable 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.
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 bass-baritone husband and their Blue Heeler.