Known for her “warm, engaging personality” on stage, Shira Lissek is a gifted operatic soprano and cantor. As a solo concert artist, Ms. Lissek draws from her eclectic musical influences to create concerts that span industry lines. To that end, Ms. Lissek pours her classically trained voice into Opera, Classical Art Song, Broadway, Jazz, Jewish Music, Israeli songs, world music, and pop. In the world of opera she has portrayed many Mozart and Puccini Heroines, including Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Seattle Opera), Mimi in La Boheme (Philadelphia Kimmel Center) “with a lovely, creamy legato”. She performs in recital annually with Ravel Scholar Dr. Arbie Orenstein at the Le Frak music hall at Queens College. Lissek has also premiered new works by opera and Broadway composers. She originated the role of R in Center City Opera Theater’s production of The Always Present Present, and sang the New York Premier of Carlisle Floyd’s Opera, Markheim, with The Center for Contemporary Opera. Ms. Lissek is regularly featured by the composer-lyricist team of Craig Baldwin and Kathy Lombardi (BMI). Most recently she portrayed the lead characters in The Stepford Wives The Musical and The Stronger.
A regular with the Gulf Coast Symphony she was featured in their pops concerts: A Barbara Streisand Tribute, An Evening of Irving Berlin, Broadway Blockbusters and Andrew Lloyd Webber Unmasked. With The Klezmer Company Orchestra, fusing Latin and Klezmer music, she was featured in Salsa Strings and Swing and Beyond the Tribe, and most recently with the Funky Moneys (children’s pop and Jewish music) at the Jewish Museum in New York. Shira Lissek holds a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University and a Masters of Music from Manhattan School of Music. Trained by Cantors Leon Lissek, David Barash, and Paul Zim, she currently serves as the Cantor for Congregation Mount Sinai in Brooklyn Heights.