Meet the Caramoor 2024 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars: Shan Hai

Each week we will be sharing some fun stories and facts about our 2024 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars! Starting on March 11th, they will be rehearsing and living at Caramoor up until their performance on March 17th. We hope you will join us!

This week we are introduced to soprano Shan Hai!

Upon relishing the beauty of Shan Hai’s soprano voice filling the Music Room at Caramoor, you will have one person (besides Shan Hai!) to thank the most for it — her grandfather. He’s the one who first inspired her love of singing by teaching her traditional Chinese-Mongolian songs when she was a young girl growing up in Beijing. As they sang together about the green landscape, she first realized the happiness that singing made her feel.

If not for this early discovery of her calling in life, she thinks she might have become a professional psychic/energy healer instead. Maybe her innate psychic powers enabled her to foresee the joyful, successful soprano awaiting herself in the future. That future (now-present) soprano recently graduated from Manhattan School of Music, where she performed many leading operatic roles and was a proud finalist in the 2023 Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition. The Chautauqua Institute and Merola Opera Program have also enjoyed showcasing Shan’s vocal prowess on their stages.  

In Mongolian culture, names are often related to nature. Shan’s family name, Hai, means the ocean, and Shan means coral in the ocean. Fittingly, Shan has been making big waves since around five years ago when she decided to switch from a mezzo-soprano to a soprano, enabling her to perform treasured soprano roles such as Feu/Rossignol in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni.

To prepare herself for a performance, Shan has learned to keep herself hydrated and well-rested. For entertainment, she might indulge in a Sponge Bob episode or two. She enjoys reading and if you ask her to recommend a book, she will generously hand you her tattered copy of The Art of Living by Thich That Hanh.

To celebrate special occasions, Shan likes to go out for delicious, nourishing Hotpot. The Schwab Vocal Rising Stars recital will indeed be special, in no small part due to Shan Hai and her beautiful soprano voice. So, with our psychic powers (a pre-requisite to be on Caramoor’s staff!), we know what meal she will enjoy on Sunday, March 17.