Conductor Nina Shuman

CELEBRATED CONDUCTOR NINA SHUMAN DIES AT 56

North Coast music lovers mourn the loss of Nina Elizabeth Shuman, who died peacefully in her home Dec. 12 after a 30-month battle with cancer.

Born April 27, 1954, in New York City, Ms. Shuman was surrounded by music and art from childhood summers in Santa Barbara, where her father, Davis Shuman, a trombonist and faculty member of The Juilliard School, taught at the Music Academy of the West. Her mother, Shirley, was an artist, and her brother, Mark, is a cellist with the New York City Opera Orchestra.

Ms. Shuman attended the Ethical Culture School and graduated from Hunter College High School, both in New York City. She received scholarships to the Blue Hill Music School in Blue Hill Maine, and earned a BA from Bennington College and an MA from Dominican University. She served as assistant conductor for Marin Civic Light Opera and studied orchestral conducting with Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music Festival.

In 1986 Ms. Shuman accepted the post of Music Director and Conductor for Cinnabar Theater, a post she held until her death. She led the company in more than 35 opera productions, including old masters and rare works, as well as West Coast and world premieres. Her final operatic project was the west coast premiere of Tobias Picker's Emmeline in June 2010, which the composer deemed an absolute triumph. She also conducted and toured operas written specifically for children. In 1988, Ms. Shuman helped Cinnabar founder Marvin Klebe create the Petaluma Summer Music Festival, where she conducted and, as a pianist, performed chamber concerts and opera galas, including a performance of Handel's Water Music on a barge in the Petaluma River. In 2001 Ms. Shuman became music director for Petaluma Sings!, a community chorus for women, and established the Cinnabar Chamber Singers and the Cinnabar Choral Ensembles.

Away from Cinnabar, Ms. Shuman conducted Boise Opera, Lamplighters SF, Sonoma City Opera, Berkeley Opera, North Bay Lyric Opera, Sonoma State University Opera, Marin Chamber Orchestra, Dominican Orchestra, Antelope Valley Orchestra, San Francisco and Winifred Baker Chorales, St. Francis Yacht Club Men’s Chorus and the Mayflower Community Chorus. She also served as music director at the Harrower Summer Opera Workshop at the University of Georgia in Athens, stage director and conductor for the Dominican College Opera Workshop, opera conductor and coach for the University of Texas at Austin, and conductor for the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute.

"Since 1986 Nina and I have made opera in this county," recalled Cinnabar Artistic Director Elly Lichenstein, "and that such an inestimable talent landed in our little midst is something immense in our lives. Her wry wit, a deep visceral understanding of character and drama in opera, and her ability to tell the great story while making the great music were unique. Her intelligent and collaborative approach to opera making and instinct for casting and repertoire were at the highest artistic level. Small in body, huge in art."

Ms. Shuman conducted her final concert on September 11. She was an avid walker, enjoyed riding horses, cooking for her musician friends and in recent years was concerned with the rescue of Siberian huskies. She is survived by her mother, her brother, his wife Elisabeth, and her nephews Nikolai and Alexander.

Graveside services will be held Wednesday, Dec. 15, at 10 a.m. at B’nai Israel Cemetery, 430 Magnolia Avenue, Petaluma.