FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Shell as associate professor of music in voice, effective Aug. 1.

Shell will also serve as resident stage director for IU Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater. He is currently visiting lecturer in music in voice with the school.

“Michael Shell’s work directing IU Jacobs Opera Theater productions and teaching coursework in stage acting for singers has transformed the experience of our students and our audiences in wonderful ways,” said Jeremy Allen, David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean (Interim). “I see Michael’s presence at the Jacobs School as an absolutely essential ingredient for the continuation and development of our Opera Theater’s long history of excellence, and I am thrilled that he has accepted our offer to join the faculty.”

Shell has also directed productions for numerous professional companies, including Atlanta Opera, Santa Fe Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, among others. He made his international directing debut at Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opera in 2010 with a production of “Winners” by American composer Richard Wargo.

“Michael Shell is an experienced, creative and well-connected director,” said Brian Horne, chair of the Voice Department. “If we had added him as a tenure-track faculty member before the pandemic, I would have been thrilled. But, having seen his extraordinary work in five shows this past year, varying from ‘Xerxes’ to ‘Little Women,’ I’m convinced that he is the only person who could have done what we needed to be done. And, moving forward, I’m convinced that he is the only person who can do what we will need in the future. What an extraordinary colleague and artist!”

Shell earned a B.M. and an M.M. in Music/Vocal Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He was a Corbett Scholar at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and studied acting and scene study on a school-awarded scholarship at HB Studio in New York City.  

He has been a guest faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Florida State University and Webster University, St. Louis, teaching Opera Workshop and directing Undergraduate Opera Workshop performances. He has been guest director at the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute and Oklahoma University, and on faculty at the Summer Opera Program of the Israeli Vocal Arts Institute.