FALL SYMPOSIUM

Master Classes with GEORGE SHIRLEY

World Renowned Opera Singer & Master Teacher

World Renowned Opera Singer & Master Teacher, GEORGE SHIRLEY

World Renowned Opera Singer & Master Teacher, GEORGE SHIRLEY

Saturday, October 23, 2021

10:00 am -12:00 pm PDT

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm PDT

via zoom

Please enjoy the following videos of the morning and afternoon masterclasses with our special guest, George Shirley.

GEORGE SHIRLEY is one of America's most versatile tenors. He is in demand nationally and internationally as a performer, teacher, and lecturer. As a performer he has won international acclaim for his performances with the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera (Covent Garden, London), Deutsche Oper (Berlin), Teatro Colòn, (Buenos Aires), Netherlands Opera (Amsterdam), L'Opéra (Monte Carlo), New York City Opera, Scottish Opera (Glasgow), Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Glyndebourne Festival, and Santa Fe Opera, among others. George Shirley has performed more than 80 operatic roles over the span of his 60-year career, as well as oratorio, recital, and concert literature with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras, e.g., Philadelphia, New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and conductors and accompanists including Solti, Klemperer, Stravinsky, Ormandy, von Karajan, Colin Davis, Böhm, Ozawa, Haitink, Boult, Leinsdorf, Boulez, DePreist, Krips, Cleva, Lewis, Dorati, Goldovsky, Pritchard, Bernstein, Maazel, Rudel, Bolcom, Brice, Isepp, Katz, Sanders, Wadsworth, Wustman, et al.

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. An extensive two-volume collection of excerpts from the tenor’s live performances and studio recordings spanning some 50 years was released in winter of 2014 by HAMBURGER ARCHIV FÜR GESANGSKUNST. Recent releases of his Covent Garden performances in Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Loge, 1975), and Die Meistersinger (David, 1969) are available from OperaDEPOT.com.  

 

A graduate of Wayne (State) University, George Shirley was the first African-American to be appointed to a high school teaching position in vocal music in Detroit, and the first African-American member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington, DC. He was the first African-American tenor and second African-American male to sing leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, where he remained for eleven years as leading artist. 

 

Mr. Shirley began his full academic career as Professor of Voice at the University of Maryland in 1980. He was subsequently selected one of the university’s Distinguished Scholar-Teachers for the school year 1985-86. He remained at Maryland until he accepted an appointment to the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music in 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. In June 1999, Professor Shirley was appointed Director of the Vocal Arts Division of the School of Music. 

 

Dr. Shirley served during the summer months from 1988 until 1998 as a member of the performance faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado, where he taught voice and assisted Edward Berkeley, director of the Opera Theater, in staging scenes for the opera workshop. George Shirley was granted emeritus status upon his retirement from The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance in May 2007. He continues to teach at the school on a part-time basis at the invitation of the voice faculty as well as privately. In the spring of 2014, Dr. Lester Monts, Vice-Provost of the university, created the George Shirley Award for Excellence in Opera Performance, a commencement award to be granted in perpetuity to a graduating student identified by the voice faculty as having consistently demonstrated outstanding potential for a professional career. Other academic honors include the Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, from his alma mater, Wayne State University in 2012, and Doctor of Music, Honoris Causa, from the University of Michigan in 2015.

 

George Shirley presents masterclasses upon invitation at various institutions of learning. In December 2013, he taught for a week in Beijing, China at the invitation of members of the vocal faculty of a music school affiliated with the China Conservatory. Two weeks during the summers of 2015 and 2017 were spent teaching in the Opera Viva! Program in Verona, Italy, and he served as a member of the faculty of the Härnösand Summer Opera Academy and Festival in Sweden from 2015 through 2017. He is a member of the Santa Fe Opera Honorary Board of Directors, and has recently under the aegis of Videmus, Inc. established the George Shirley Vocal Competition for high school and college students of all ethnicities; the competition focuses on promulgating the solo vocal compositions of African-American composers. In celebration of his 80th birthday in 2014 George Shirley recorded the CD My Time Has Come, highlighting Roland Hayes’s masterful song cycle of spirituals entitled The Life of Christ. The CD is available only through donations made to the scholarship competition.

 

A tireless advocate for music education, George Shirley loses no opportunity to articulate his arguments supporting maintaining meaningful and effective music curricula in the nation's primary and secondary schools. His article "Music Education in Detroit's Public Schools: The Struggle to Survive," published on June 9, 2010, in the NewMusicBox online journal of the American Music Center, received the 2011 ASCAP Deems Taylor Competition Award. At the 2014 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Shirley received the NATS Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the teaching profession. At a White House ceremony in September 2015, President Barack Obama bestowed on him the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given by the federal government to artists and arts patrons. At its National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, in January 2016, the National Opera Association (NOA) honored the tenor with its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, he received the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) Award for Musical Excellence at their 100th Anniversary Convention in Chicago. In 2020 one of his former students, Dr. Louise Toppin, the Artistic Director of the Videmus Foundation, established the George Shirley Vocal Competition focused on the art song compositions of African American composers. In 2020 one of his former students, Dr. Louise Toppin, the Artistic Director of the Videmus Foundation, established the George Shirley Vocal Competition focused on the art song compositions of African American composers. Also, in 2020, George Shirley received an invitation from Michael Fabiano, an internationally-acclaimed operatic tenor and a former student, to join the Board of Directors of ArtSmart, a non-profit organization co-founded by Fabiano that provides music instruction to talented youth in underserved communities. In 2020 the tenor was inducted into the Opera America Hall of Fame.

 

A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, George Shirley has been married to the visual artist Gladys Ishop Shirley for 65 years. They have two children, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.


Due to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, our Fall Symposium will be held online, via Zoom for the safety of all participants.

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