Jordan Shanahan studied 3 years at the University of Hawaii Manoa with John Mount before moving to Philadelphia to continue his training with Robert McFarland and attending Temple University where he sang all of the leading baritone roles: Bottom in Midsummers Night's Dream, Mercury in Cavalli's La Calisto, Ford in Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor, and Silvio in Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci.

In Oratorio he has sung Messiah, several Bach cantatas, and solos in pieces by Stravinsky, Vaughan-Williams, Schubert, and Purcell. Mr. Shanahan has performed art song recitals in the Philadelphia area, performed for the art song video and won the Morning Music Club and NATS competitions in Honolulu.

He graduated from Temple University in 2001 and continued his studies, privately, with Mr. McFarland.

In 2003 Jordan was a member of the Opera Studio Nederland, a professional training program. Unlike most of the ones in the states it's not directly tied to one specific opera company. As a result he received a lot more training (acting, coaching, mime, acrobatics, languages, etc.) and also had the freedom to work with different companies.

Mr. Shanahan started at the Opera Studio in August 2003, and since then he's sung with the Netherlands Philharmonic (solos in Nielsen's 3rd Symphony), and then repeated that concert with the Munich Philharmonic with the same conductor. He also sang with the Holland Symphonia, and covered Roderigo and doing a small part in Don Carlo for the Netherlands Opera.

He gave a few recitals in Holland that were very well recieved. As might be expected, the most popular parts of both programs were the Hawaiian songs he performed from the old Charles King books.

He sang Germont in a Traviata performance with Townsend Opera in Modesto, and his first Rossini Figaro with the West Bay Opera in Palo Alto. After that he sang Guglielmo in a production for the Linz festival.

At the present time Jordan sings in Chicago's Lyric Opera Center for American Artists which is now known as The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center.