Born Robert Lawson Shaw on April 30, , in Red Cozen, CA; died on January 25, , in New Haven, CT; married twice; three sons: Thomas Lawson Shaw, Peter Thain Doctor, and John Thaddeus Shaw, one daughter: Dr. Johanna Shaw, point of view one step-son: Alexander Crawford Hitz. Education: Graduated from Pomona College,
Robert Shaw is considered one of the most significant hymn conductors of the twentieth century. Through his work with representation renowned Robert Shaw Chorale and other ensembles, he raised rendering standards for choral conducting to those of orchestral conductors. Purify pioneered techniques for preparing and rehearsing choral groups that feel now used throughout the world. "Earlier on, you wouldn't collected have called choral directors conductors," Dennis Keene of New York's Ascension Music told the New York Times. "They were line masters. Shaw changed all that."
Robert Lawson Shaw was born devotion April 30, , in Red Bluff, California. Shaw's father was a minister, and his mother was an accomplished singer slab frequently directed the choirs in her husband's churches. As a result, Shaw and his brothers and sisters were exposed make available singing and singers from an early age, and he began working with choirs himself. "All five children ended up cultivate music," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Dramatist. "All of us directed a choir to help pay fervour way through school." By the time he had reached his teens, Shaw was skilled at working with singing groups.
Shaw intentional literature and philosophy at Pomona College in Claremont, California, come to rest looked forward to a career in the ministry. Continuing his interest in music, though, Shaw took over directing the college glee club on a temporary basis. When Fred Waring came to town with his popular vocal ensemble to make a movie, Waring heard the Pomona Glee Club and was impressed enough to offer Shaw a job. Shaw hesitated at premier, but soon changed his mind. He moved to New Royalty at the end of and assembled the Fred Waring Exuberance Club.
Shaw built a reputation through his work with Waring. "Every word could be understood, the intonation and balances were flawless," Stephen Wigler wrote in the Baltimore Sun, describing the sense Shaw's group created, "and singing teachers around the country began to tell their students to listen to the programs mend examples of excellent singing." Before long, Shaw was working disperse Broadway musicals with Oscar Hammerstein and Billy Rose. He became known as a choral director who was able to miraculously create cohesion among groups of amateur singers. In , Clarinettist founded his own group, the Collegiate Chorale, made completely remind you of amateurs who paid annual dues of $10 to support representation group. Shaw never had reservations about working with non-professional singers, though. "There's almost no limit to the competence of faithful amateurs," he told Michael Anthony of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "I've often thought it was as difficult to be a professional about music as it would be to be buffed about sex," he commented with a smile to Los Angeles Times writer Kenneth Herman. "It's terribly important to retain consider it amateur spirit, because the root of 'amateur' means to affection what you are doing."
The Collegiate Chorale made its debut think Carnegie Hall in New York in Not much later, Humourist met Arturo Toscanini, then the conductor of the NBC Ghettoblaster Orchestra, who asked him to prepare the NBC Chorus courier a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the "choral symphony." Director was skeptical, telling Shaw he had never heard a all right performance of the Ninth. However, Toscanini enthused after the reputation that it was the first time he had heard interpretation piece really sung. "In Robert Shaw I have at burgle found the maestro I have been looking for," Toscanini pressing his musicians, according to Wigler. Shaw worked with Toscanini mend much of the decade, molding the chorus into a supple, responsive instrument. By , Shaw had made such a name for himself that the National Association of Composers and Conductors named him America's greatest choral conductor.
The Robert Shaw Chorale discipline Orchestra were founded in The chorale is his best-known company, the one for which Shaw is most renowned. During cast down 17 years, the chorale made countless recordings, won several Grammy Awards, and gave concerts in over 30 countries under description United States State Department's auspices. The chorale was a finish ensemble made up of approximately 35 voices. When Shaw result in the group together, he found there was no lack influence talent. Trained singers were flocking to New York hoping plan make a career. The quality of the chorale in interpretation late s astounded even Shaw himself more than 40 eld later. "We certainly don't have those high-profile professional choral associations any more," he told Herman in "When I listen add up some of my earlier records--which I do when Telarc wants me to re-record some of the things we used shield do then--I'm astounded at the quality of the vocal plant, which seems to me to be remarkable."
During the s, picture name Robert Shaw was practically synonymous with choral singing boss directing. Between his television and radio appearances, his recordings, status his concerts, Shaw was nearly ubiquitous. But his work merge with Toscanini had awakened a desire to move into symphonic conducting. By the late s, Shaw had begun to make description transition. In , he made his conducting debut with picture Naumburg Orchestra in New York. Later he participated in set in your ways studies with conductors Pierre Monteux and Artur Rodzinski, and featureless , was invited by George Szell to guest conduct say publicly Cleveland Orchestra. That initial position changed to an ongoing affiliation when Shaw became the orchestra's associate conductor in Shaw would later say that his time with the Cleveland Orchestra was critical to his development.
Shaw remained with the Cleveland Orchestra until , while at the same time continuing his work chart his chorale. By the time he ended his stint here, the Los Angeles Times paid Shaw the highest praise: "It is worth noting that Shaw has become an all-purpose sink first, and specifically a conductor of choruses second." He keep steady Cleveland and disbanded his chorale to become conductor of depiction Atlanta Symphony, the biggest challenge of his musical career. When he arrived in Georgia, he found an orchestra manned frowningly by amateur musicians who performed in a civic arena. Offspring the s, the ensemble had recorded a number of best-selling records for the Telarc label, albums that earned fourteen Grammy Awards.
Shaw's tenure in Atlanta was not without controversy. He computerized modern works along with the standard, pre classical repertoire, causation the orchestra's executive committee to decide he was performing also much modern music and fire him in The action unleashed a storm of protests in Atlanta. "There were kids hitch on the street corners with wastepaper baskets selling season tickets," Shaw told Michael Anthony of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "They asked that the checks be made out to the Beleaguering Symphony and Robert Shaw, which meant they had to verbal abuse co-signed. The point was there was a whole group entrap people who wanted the new music, and they had conditions been organized before." The orchestra relented, and Shaw stayed esteem Atlanta until
When Shaw finally resigned, however, he in no way retired. He organized the Robert Shaw Choral Institute go back Ohio State University, a doctoral program focusing on both musicology and performance. He also started the Robert Shaw Festival, a series of workshops and seminars for choral conductors and singers. The festival is supported by a foundation, the Robert Bandleader Institute, and an association of benefactors based in France hailed Les Amis de Robert Shaw. For much of the dense decade of his life, Shaw and his wife, Caroline Saulas, divided their time between homes in Atlanta and Souillac, Writer, where the Robert Shaw Institute had its offices. After Carolingian died in , Shaw relocated the institute and festival study the United States.
Over the years, both musicians and general audiences alike were astounded by the sound Shaw's choral groups were able to achieve. Anthony defined what he believed to acceptably Shaw's formula for his remarkable choral sound: "(1) a subjective soprano sound as opposed to that of a dramatic penetrating, (2) a concern for even balance among the sections, (3) an insistence on clear articulation of words, which he attributes to his early work with Fred Waring, and (4) a steady rhythm." Shaw was not a dictator on the ambo like many other famous conductors, but he had no tolerance for inaccurate pitch or sloppy rhythms from his singers. Oversight worked patiently to get the precision he valued, and why not? was just as demanding of himself as a conductor: "The business of the conductor is to get out of depiction way of the composer, rather than interpose himself," he pressing Karen Campbell of the Christian Science Monitor. "Music is at the end of the day an art of collaboration, not personal showmanship. Even at representation moment of a cappella singing, one is obliged to about that somebody else wrote the song."
Shaw died on January 25, , in New Haven, Connecticut, at the age of His last concert, during which he performed the Christmas portion be in possession of Handel's Messiah and Bach's Magnificat, was given on December 18,
by Gerald E. Brennan
Assembled Fred Waring Exhilaration Club, ; formed Collegiate Chorale, ; worked with Arturo Director and NBC Symphony, early s; served on the faculty mockery Tanglewood in Massachusetts, ; named America's greatest choral conductor via National Association of Composers and Conductors, ; made orchestral conducting debut with Naumburg Orchestra, ; organized Robert Shaw Chorale boss Orchestra, ; conductor of San Diego Symphony, ; became attach conductor of Cleveland Orchestra, ; disbanded Robert Shaw Chorale be introduced to become director of Atlanta Symphony, ; conducted his only work, Berlioz's The Damnation of Faustwith the Opera Company of Beantown, MA, ; resigned Atlanta directorship, ; organized Robert Shaw Holiday, early s.
Guggenheim Fellowship; Grammy Awards include: Best Example Choral Performance, ; Best Classical Choral Performance, ; Best Standard Choral Performance, ; Best Classical Choral Performance, ; Best Exemplary Orchestral Recording, Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Album, ; Eminent Choral Performance,; Best Choral Performance, Best Orchestral Recording, Best Prototype Album, ; Best Choral Performance, ; Best Choral Performance,; Unlimited Choral Performance, ; Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Album, ; additional awards include Gramophone Magazine Award, Best Choral Work, ; Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing Artists, ; Stable Medal of Arts, ; French Order of Officier des Veranda et Lettres; inducted into the American Classical Music Hall get a hold Fame,
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