Biography
Dr. Jinni Shen, a soprano from Nanjing, China, began her musical journey at the age of five. Jinni is currently a member of the Butler Opera Center at The University of Texas at Austin, From 2022 to 2025, she performed a wide range of principal roles with the Butler Opera Center, including Rosina in The Ghosts of Versailles, Lisa in The Queen of Spades, Musetta in La Bohème, Giulietta in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, “Ma” Zegner in Proving Up, and Micaëla in Carmen.
After moving to the United States, in the year of 2019, Jinni made her operatic debut in Mannes Opera’s production of Street Scene by Kurt Weill, she also participated in the International Vocal Arts Institute, and the Savannah Voice Festival. As a studio artist with Pittsburgh Festival Opera, she performed the role of Min in a new opera The Night Flight of Minerva’s Owl and covered Xanthe in Die Liebe der Danae. Additional credits include Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with FAVA Opera, and an apprenticeship with the OPERA San Antonio Young Artist Program during the 2022– 2023 season. In the summer of 2025, Jinni appeared in a series of concerts as a part of the LEAD Cooperative with the Wintergreen Music Festival in the summer. She joined the Opera for Peace U.S. Academy, a collaboration with The Denyce Graves Foundation and Cafritz Young Artists Program of Washington National Opera, working with world-renowned artists and administrators including Denyce Graves, Renée Fleming, Kamal Khan, Christopher Cano, Samuel Gelber, and performing at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C.
As an artist who is full of motivation, enthusiasm and desire to perform and collaborate, Dr. Shen is active both on and off stage. Following the Covid -19 pandemic, she co-organized the recital series entitled Art Songs of the World in several different venues around the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts for their local community. Jinni is a co-founder of the The Rêverie Project, as a recipient of the City of Austin Nexus Grant 2024, which is a concert series founded by a diverse collective of classically trained musicians and creatives based in Austin, TX.
Jinni is the winner of the 2025 Butler School of Music Concerto Competition. She was a semi–finalist in the 2025 James Toland Vocal Arts Vocal Competition and Palm Spring Vocal Competition, and a finalist with honorable mention in the 2025 NATS Artist Award (Texoma Region). She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin and began the Artist Diploma program at the Butler Opera Center the same year. She holds a Master’s degree in Voice from the Mannes School of Music, and a Bachelor’s degree from the China Conservatory of Music. Upcoming engagements include Giorgetta and Suor Angelica in Il trittico with Butler Opera Center.