Before his recent appointment as Artistic Director of the Savannah Philharmonic, Peter Shannon spent the previous decade conducting the “Collegium Musicum Orchestra” in Heidelberg, attached to the oldest of the German universities. Following in the tradition of Bach, who himself was the conductor of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig, Shannon and his orchestra won great critical acclaim; prompting one German critic to describe a recent concert as “the crowning confirmation of their most impressive reputation to date.”
With large scale works like Mahler’s 1st and 5th Symphonies and Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra” he and the orchestra have toured Norway, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Poland. A “Symphony Fantastique” critique bore the headline “Furious Berlioz Spectacular”, and as an interpreter of the late German Romantics, Mahler and Wagner, (Mr. Shannon was awarded a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Society) Shannon has been described as “a dynamic young conductor with a sublime feeling for tension and release, shaping a dream of sound…”
Born in 1969, Peter Shannon began his musical education as a choirboy in Cork Cathedral, Ireland. As a B. Mus. student at University College Dublin and whilst singing baritone in the RTE National Chamber Choir he began studying conducting under the Irish conductor, Colman Pearce.
In Germany, he studied in Weimar at the “Franz Liszt Hochschule fur Music”, one of only two universities in Germany which hold the title of “elite” university. He graduated with the highest possible grade which can be awarded by the German State.
As a member of Dirigenten Forum, part of the German Arts Council whose function it is to sponsor an “especially talented” group for up and coming conductors, Shannon has been guest conductor of orchestras such as Gottingen Philharmoniker, Baden-Baden Philharmonie, Thoringen Philharmonie, Jena Philharmonie, Halle Philharmonisches Orchester, Rheinische Philharmonie, etc..
Outside Germany, Peter Shannon has appeared as guest conductor with the Warsaw Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Pecs Symphony Orchestra in Hungary.
In 1998, he made his debut with the Irish RTE Concert Orchestra and in the following year with the Irish National Symphony Orchestra and has been invited back as a guest conductor with both orchestras.
In January 2004, Shannon made his U.S. Debut in Washington conducting a J.S. Bach program in a chamber music setting with members of the National Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He has been a guest conductor at music festivals in Norway and Italy, and in August 2008 he returned to Germany as Artistic Director of “Voices of Europe”; a week-long festival of concerts by choirs of ethnic minorities from all over Europe.
Mr. Shannon has recently been officially recognized by the American Federation of Musicians and the United States Government as an individual of extraordinary ability.
