Spain, Portugal & Latin America
Praised for his “full, voluminous” voice and “personal and beautiful” timbre (De Trouw), Shahbazi is celebrated for his acclaimed interpretations of both baroque and contemporary music.
Rising countertenor Cameron Shahbazi, praised for his “full, voluminous” voice and “personal and beautiful” timbre (De Trouw), is celebrated for his acclaimed interpretations of both baroque and contemporary music. In 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Opus Klassik Award in the ‘Innovative Concert of the Year’ category for his brainchild entitled “Woman.Life.Freedom.”, a benefit concert at Oper Frankfurt produced in support of human rights in Iran.
The 2026/27 season brings a wealth of concert engagements for Cameron Shahbazi. Highlights include joining Gustavo Dudamel at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu for a new project by Shirin Neshat, concert performances of Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with the China Philharmonic Orchestra at the Beijing Music Festival, and George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. Further engagements include Bach’s Magnificat with the Orquestra de València, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Il Pomo d’Oro at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and Handel’s Messiah with the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville. Shahbazi also makes his first appearance with the Macao Orchestra under Laurence Cummings and presents a recital with Jeff Cohen at the Victoria de los Ángeles Festival in Barcelona.
Recent seasons featured several important debuts for Cameron Shahbazi. He made his house debuts at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare, a role he subsequently reprised in his company debut with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He also appeared as Tolomeo at the Glyndebourne Festival and at Dutch National Opera, and stepped in at short notice as Tolomeo in Handel’s Tolomeo, re d’Egitto with the Basel Chamber Orchestra for performances at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana. Shahbazi appeared at Vancouver Opera as The Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Hamor in Handel’s Jephta. He also made his company debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper as Anfinomo in Il ritorno/The Year of Magical Thinking.
Further highlights include his Oper Frankfurt debut as Oberon in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the title role in Tolomeo, re d’Egitto at the Internationale Handel-Festspiele Karlsruhe in a production by Benjamin Lazar. He made his Russian debut as Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare with the Moscow Chamber Ensemble and earned critical acclaim as First Angel/Boy in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at Oper Köln, where he also sang Guildenstern in Brett Dean’s Hamlet. As an associate artist of the Dutch National Opera Studio, he created the role of Sergey Diaghilev in Willem Jeths’ Ritratto. Other appearances include Disinganno in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at Theater Aachen and the title role in Cavalli’s Il Giasone for Opera NEO.
A major career milestone was his involvement in George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This, which began with the world premiere at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. He subsequently made his company debut at the Linbury Theatre in London in the Olivier Award-nominated production before reprising it at the Opéra Comique in Paris, Opéra national du Rhin, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, and Oper Köln.
A sought-after concert performer, Shahbazi was heard as soloist in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal in Versailles, George Benjamin’s acclaimed Dream of the Song with the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne, and the title role in Vivaldi’s Tamerlano with Orchestra Les Accents at Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música and at Müpa Budapest. Following an invitation to the Leipzig Bach Festival, the countertenor joined Lang Lang, Daniel Hope, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in a major open-air gala honouring J.S. Bach. He returned to Canada to perform Handel’s Messiah at Toronto’s Koerner Hall and sang George Benjamin’s Written on Skin in concert with the Orchestre National de Lille. Shahbazi has appeared in recital under the auspices of Oper Frankfurt with Malcolm Martineau and Paris’ Sainte-Chapelle Opera Festival with Jeff Cohen, as well as with pianist Sophia Muñoz presenting Warsaw Sessions, an innovative recital concept exploring connections across musical styles, periods, and cultural traditions, including a performance at Bayer Kultur in Leverkusen.
Hamilton-born Cameron Shahbazi is an alumnus of the University of Toronto and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and is a grateful recipient of grants from the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation and the Staetshuys Fonds. He has received prestigious international honors including the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation Award (2019), the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Prize at the International Belvedere Competition (2018), Second Prize at the Innsbruck Cesti Competition (2018), top prizes at the Opéra Avignon Jeunes Espoirs Competition (2017), the Walter Prsytawski Prize (2021), and the Sylva Gelber Award (2021). He was also a finalist at the 2019 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition.
