Shaina Virginia Vatz (Mariane, Tartuffe) makes her Forgotten Opera Company debut with Tartuffe. Shaina has performed many roles in the opera, operetta, and musical theater repertory, including Valencienne in the Municipal Opera Company of Baltimore’s The Merry Widow,Yum-Yum in the Victorian Lyric Opera Company’s Mikado, and Miss Silversong in an English adaptation of Mozart’s The Impresario with the Annapolis Chorale and Chamber Orchestra.

Last summer, she performed in North Carolina at Long Leaf Opera’s Summer Festival as the cover for Venus in Zachary Wadsworth’s Venus and Adonis and at the Bethesda Summer Music Festival as Nella in Gianni Schicchi. Over the holidays, Shaina will add traditional British pantomime to her repertoire as the Princess at the Baltimore Theater Project in an original adaptation of Puss in Boots, written by Peabody Opera Director Roger Brunyate and composer Mark Hanson Williams. In January she will be accompanied by James Harp, Artistic Administrator of Baltimore Opera, in a performance of the one-woman Jake Heggie opera At the Statue of Venus as part of Harford Community College’s annual “Winter Doldrums” concert.

During her time as a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Shaina performed roles including Atalanta in Handel’s Xerxes, Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring, and the Novice in Puccini’s Suor Angelica with the UNC’s Opera Theater. In the world of musical theater, she has taken the stage with leading soprano roles such as Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Lady Larkin in Once Upon a Mattress, and Isabel in Scrooge.

In addition to opera and musical theater performances, Shaina has performed extensively within the baroque repertoire including Bach’s well known oratorios Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen for soprano and trumpet and “Seufzer Tränen” from Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis. Other chamber music engagements include featured performances of songs by Monteverdi and Buxtehude with the UNC Baroque Ensemble.

An avid lover of art songs in every language and musical period, Shaina has performed in many recitals with renditions of German, Italian, French, British, and American song. In 2005 she performed a recital of Bellini, Poulenc, Baksa, and Gershwin for the Mission Benefit Concert Series that benefited the Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity.

Shaina returned to her native Maryland three years ago after graduating with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently resides in Baltimore with her stunningly elegant cat, Galatea.

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