Was born in the USA. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music and with his father, the celebrated cantor Sidney Shicoff. He made his professional debut in the title role of Ernani (Verdi) conducted by James Levine in Cincinnati in 1975 and a year later he made his Metropolitano Opera debut as as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi (Puccini) conducted by James Levine. Since then he has perfomred score of roles in literally all important opera houses around the world including the Vienna Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian Staatsoper, the Salzburg Festival and the opera houses of Chicago, San Francisco, Hamburg, Geneva, Venice, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Verona, Zurich, Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires and many more. His current repertoire includes Cavaradossi in Tosca (Puccini), Herman in Pique Dame (Tchaikovsky), the title role in Peter Grimes (Britten), Eleazar in La Juive (Halevy), the title role in Don Carlo (Verdi), Romeo in Romeo et Juliette (Gounod), Rodolfo in Luisa Miller (Verdi), Rodolfo in La boheme (Puccini), the title role in Werther (Massenet), Des Griuex in Manon Lescaut (Puccini), Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), the title role in Idomeneo (Mozart), the title role in Les Contes des Hoffmann (Offenbach), Adorno in Simone Boccanegra, Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera, Manrico in Il trovatore (Verdi), Lensky in Yevgeni Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Captain Vere in Billy Budd (Britten) and other roles.