
Shawn Wallace
Multi-faceted Musical Artist, Arranger and Composer
A multi-talented musical artist in styles ranging from Gospel to Jazz to Hip-Hop and beyond; as keyboardist, Shawn Wallace has worked with luminary artists such as Common, Ice Cube, Bobby Brown, Dwele, Johnny Gill, Jon B., Bilal, Estelle, Julie Dexter, Erykah Badu, Rene Neufville, Rakim, Eric Roberson, Maggie Brown, Ugochi, Obisoulstar and Cherisse Scott.
Arrangement and composition for theatre include Ifa Bayeza's Amistad Voices (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre) Kid Zero (Chicago Center for Performing Arts) and Charleston Olio (National Black Theatre Festival) Shepsu Aakhu’s Warm on the Cooling Board (MPAACT 2014) and Carla Stillwell’s Lawd the CVS is Burning…a Gospel Musical Stage Play (MPACT 2015), When Good Broccoli Goes Bad (MPAACT), Rutherford's Travels (Pegasus Theatre Fall 2016) and Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery (Pegasus Theatre Fall 2017, Spring 2025), Middle Passage (Lifeline Theatre 2022). In 2022, Shawn, Shepsu Aakhu (MPAACT) and Andy White (Lookingglass Theatre Co.) completed and premiered Red Summer, recipient of an National Endowment for the Arts Award.
Shawn’s independent film score credits include Severed Ties (Showcase Productions/Lions Gate Films), Puzzle Love (Storybox Productions) and Son of America (Tanskin Productions/N’Spire Entertainment INC). Sound Design credits include Lady Day at Emmerson’s Bar and Grill (Congo Square Theatre), Love Child (Live Bait Theatre/Chicago Theatre Company), and Love Talk (Chicago Theatre Company). Commercial credits include work for Jet Magazine, Mississippi Rick’s Restaurant, Huffy Bicycles, Arby’s and Sprint. The versatile artist made his film producing debut with Robert Goodwin with the documentary film You’ll Be A Man (Testuvaman Filmworks, 2014) and composed music, recorded and mixed the audio book version of Rayla 2212 by acclaimed author Ytasha Womack. Shawn has also served as Technical Director for the Russell Talbert Dance Studio/Chicago since 1998.
A native of Chicago's Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood and proud alum of Morgan Park High School, Shawn studied Music Theory and Composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is an alum of the prestigious MERIT School of Music in Chicago. Shawn has worked for several years as a Teaching Artist teaching Music, Record Production, Band, Choir and Technical Theatre and has served as a Music Director and Composer for Storycatchers Theatre and the Lyric Opera/Chicago Urban League’s Empower Youth Program. Shawn currently teaches Vocal Technique and Repertoire and Keyboard Fundamentals at the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts High School).