bio
repertoire
Interview 2003
interview 1993
review
GEORGE SHIRLEY
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"...an acting tour de force with music in
a new classical play by Albert T. Viola and William S. Kilborne
based on Chekov's one-act play "Swan Song" with music
of Puccini, Verdi and Gershwin. Needless to say George Shirley is
magnificent. Everyone was overwhelmed...he is magic". " A joyous, crowd-pleasing tribute to
(Martin Luther) King "Montage to Martin". "The quality of the vocal
soloist was so consistently high that the music and words shone
to the strongest possible effect. One of the production's greatest
assets was narrator and tenor soloist George Shirley, the first
African-American tenor to sing leading roles at the Metropolitan
Opera, where he was a mainstay for 11 seasons. Shirley, who still
has plenty of firepower, brought immense authority and dignity to
the narration, which tells of King's rise, his struggle and the
impact of his death.. "In the double roles of the seductive shepherd
Aristeus and of Pluto, god of Hades, he imparts robust seasoning
to the new staging of Offenback's 'Orpheus in the Underworld"
in the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in a performance sparkling with energy.
Shirley is an arch-comedian. He shows off with the kind of stage
presence which captivates an audience within seconds and does not
let it go". "Pierre Boulez takes a contrasting approach
in his 1970 Sony Classical recording with the orchestra of the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden. Mr. Boulez opts for higher-range singers
in the title roles: the elegant soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom and
the tenor George Shirley, a distinguished and undervalued artist,
in a milestone of his career." |
Tenor and Narrator
One of America's most versatile tenors and enlightened musicians, George Shirley is in demand nationally and internationally as performer, teacher, lecturer and most recently narrator.
He has won international acclaim for his performances with the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera (Covent Garden, London), Deutsche Oper (Berlin), Teatro Colón, (Buenos Aires), Netherlands Opera (Amsterdam), L'Opèra (Monte Carlo), New York City Opera, Scottish Opera (Glasgow), Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Glyndebourne Festival, Spoleto Festival, and Santa Fe Opera, among others. Mr. Shirley has recorded for RCA, COLUMBIA, DECCA, ANGEL,VANGUARD, CRI, and PHILIPS; he received a GRAMMY AWARD in 1968 for his role (Ferrando) in the prize-winning RCA recording of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte, which has been re-issued on compact disc. A recording on the Capriccio label, released in the fall of 1996, features George Shirley as narrator of two poems by James Forsyth, "Spirit of St. Louis" and "Ruth", set to the music of the late Franz Waxman. The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester of Berlin is conducted by Lawrence Foster. His most recent narration was "Three Places in New England" by Charles Ives with the Chicago Symphony.
George Shirley has performed more than 80 operatic roles over the span of his 40-year career, as well as oratorio and concert literature with some of the world's most renowned conductors (Solti, Klemperer, Stravinsky, Ormandy, von Karajan, Cohn Davis, Böhm, Ozawa, Haitink, Boult, Leinsdorf, Boulez, Muti, DePreist, Krips, Cleva, Dorati, Pritchard, Bernstein, Previtali, Maazel, et al.).
In New York, he produced a series of radio programs for WQXR-FM called "Classical Music and the Afro-American".
The City of Detroit and the State of Michigan have honored this Wayne State University graduate on numerous occasions. From his Alma Mater Professor Shirley has received both the Alumni Association and Arts Achievement Awards. In November, 1996 he was honored with the Wayne State University Organization of Black Alumni Achievement Award.
He was the first African-American to be appointed to a high school teaching position in music in Detroit, and later became the first black member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington, DC. He was the first black tenor and second African--American male to sing leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, where he remained for eleven years as leading artist. In June of 1996 he sang the role of Herod Antipas in Richard Strauss' opera Salome to close the inaugural season of The Michigan Opera Theatre's new Detroit Opera House. He performed the role of Sportin' Life in Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess during the summer of 1998 at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. This was the first time in his lengthy career that Mr. Shirley had performed the role in a staged production of what is arguably America's most famous verismo opera.
George Shirley was selected as one of the Distinguished Scholar-Teachers for the school year 1985-86 at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he served as Professor of Voice from 1980 to 1987. He was invited to join the faculty of the School of Music of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in September, 1987. At their July, 1992 meeting, the University of Michigan Board of Regents named George Shirley The Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Professor of Music.
Professor Shirley holds honorary degrees from Wilberforce University, Montclair State College, Lake Forest College, and the University of Northern Iowa. He has served as a Senior Fellow in the University of Michigan Society of Fellows. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Kappa Phi, and Omicron Delta Kappa. He is also a National Patron of Delta Omicron, a member of the American Academy of Teachers of Singing, a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Michigan Musical Society, the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Santa Fe Opera and a former member of the Executive Board of the Horace H. Rackham Graduate School of the University of Michigan.
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