Sharon Abreu

Soprano

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  • In the fall of 2023, Sharon is a soloist in the Orcas Choral Society's performance of Handel's "Messiah", as well as coaching and leading soprano/alto sectionals. In June, 2023, Sharon's composition "Peace for All Time", a choral piece based on John F. Kennedy's June, 1963, "Peace Speech", was performed by twenty singers (including Sharon and Michael) supported by violin, viola, cello and French horn.
  • In 2022, Sharon was a soloist with the Orcas Choral Society, for holiday services at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Eastsound, and for the "Healing of the Nations" service at Center Church on Lopez Island.
  • In August, 2021, Sharon sang Beethoven's "Music, Wine and Love" in the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, along with Gordon Koenig and Jon Kimura Parker.
  • Between 2006 and 2019, Sharon has been a soloist with the Orcas Choral Society for Haydn's Missa Brevis, Bach's Coffee Cantata, Magnificat and B Minor Mass, Vivaldi's Gloria, Fauré's Requiem, and Mozart's Requiem at the Orcas Center and Saint Mark's Cathedral in Seattle. She has also served as vocal coach for the OCS.
  • Sharon was the vocal coach for the musicals Billy Elliott (2018) and Mamma Mia (2019) at the Orcas Center.
  • In 2016, Sharon performed her original one-woman musical show, The Climate Monologues, in the Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival and the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City.
  • In the 2015 Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, she sang the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Hector Villa-Lobos, accompanied by eight cellos.
  • In 2014, Sharon sang in the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival with baritone Philip Cutlip and international concert pianist Jon Kimura Parker.
  • On Sunday, November 10, 2013, Sharon and her partner Michael Hurwicz presented "From Folk to Classical: A celebration of song styles throughout the ages" at the Half Hollow Hills Community Library, in Dix Hills, Long Island, New York. An hour-long concert of great standards, duets from Broadway and opera (Mozart!), well-known folk songs, and originals.
  • Sharon was a Musician-in-Residence with the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, helping expose young children to the joys of music.
  • Sharon and her partner Michael Hurwicz have been regularly featured performers in the Brown Bag concert series at the historic Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Orcas Island, where Sharon has sung works like Faure's Pie Jesu and the Flower Duet from the opera Lakme. These free summer concerts raise money for local student music scholarships.
  • In February 2009, she was the soprano soloist for Mozart’s Vespers in Seattle with Orchestra Seattle and the Seattle Chamber Singers.
  • In November 2008, Sharon was the soprano soloist for Mozart’s Regina Coeli in a gala celebration of 135 years of choral singing at New York University.
  • Also in 2008, she was the soprano soloist for Bach's Coffee Cantata with the Orcas Choral Society.
  • In September 2007, Sharon presented her first classical voice concert, "Autumn Airs", at the Orcas Center.
  • In 2006, she sang for Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai in Berkeley, California. The same year, she was the soprano soloist for Haydn's Missa Brevis with the Orcas Choral Society.
  • Sharon starred in the musical The Taffetas at Orcas Center and in Summer Stock at the Bellingham Ferry Terminal. Sharon has sung in the Night of the Living Divas concerts and One World benefit concerts for The Funhouse, the local nonprofit children’s science and activity center, at Orcas Center.
  • Sharon was selected to sing in an audience-attended master class with Metropolitan Opera soprano Licia Albanese, who said of Sharon’s “O mio babbino caro”, “This is Puccini!”
  • Sharon performed as “Waffle from Belgium” in the improv comedy vocal quintet Whatever4 at the New York Buskers Fare and the Streets Ahead Festival in England.
  • Sharon sang for three years with the professional children’s opera company Opera Enterprise, and has sung lead roles in several operas including Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte.
  • Sharon and Michael have performed in concert several times with legendary folksinger Pete Seeger.

  • Sharon (more often than not with Michael) has also sung at:

    • The United Nations in New York
    • U.N. World Environment Day in San Francisco
    • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Mount Vernon
    • The Stanwood Historical Society annual benefit dinner
    • The Northwest Folk Life Festival in Seattle
    • The World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa
    • Lopez Center for Martin Luther King Day
    • The first KLOI benefit concert
    • Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, as a soloist for the Puccini Heroines lecture series
    • A variety of events, conferences and concerts for churches, libraries and senior groups

  • Sharon has studied with:

    • Metropolitan Opera singers Licia Albanese, Diana Soviero and Frederica von Stade
    • Joan Patenaude-Yarnell, San Francisco Opera, Curtis Institute of Music
    • William Barto Jones, Coach, New York City Opera
    • Dick Jones, Staging Director, Chicago Lyric Opera
    • Richard Crittenden, Acting for Opera, Aquarius Opera Workshop, NYC
    • Cynthia Hoffman, Judith Raskin Master Class, 92nd Street Y, Manhattan School of Music, NYC
  • Sharon also developed and taught the curriculum "Selling the Song," a musical scene preparation class for high school students from the Professional Performing Arts School at The Actors Institute, NYC.