Shaw, Robert
Lawson (30th April 1916-25th January 1999)
He
was an conductor born in Red Bluff, California, to a family where his
father and grandfather were both ministers and his mother was a church
choral singer.He studied at
Pomona College in Los Angeles and while there he joined the glee club and
was asked to take over the choir for a faculty leader that was ill.Fred Waring who was making a movie
there noticed the choir and was so impressed he asked him to set up a glee
club in New York.Venturing
out in his professional career in music in the late 1930s/early 1940s, he
established the Collegiate Chorale, which made a name for itself because of
the racial integration it made.Becoming noticed they appeared with Arthur Toscanini and the NBC
Symphony in 1945 in a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and much
impressing Toscanini, he worked with and arranged choirs for him until
1954.In 1949 he formed his
extremely successful Robert Shaw Chorale who went on to undertake worldwide
US State Department sponsored tours where they visited over 30 countries
and make numerous recordings for RCA Records.In 1953 he was given the position of Music Director of
the San Diego Symphony and he stayed there until 1957 until he undertook
studies with George Szell and became his assistant for eleven years at the
Cleveland Orchestra.While
there he turned the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus into a highly acclaimed
volunteer ensemble and would repeat this feat when he established the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus in his years of being the Music Director
of the ASO from 1967 to 1988.After leaving this position in 1988, the ASO saw fit to bestow on
him the title of Music Director Emeritus and Conductor Laureate.Other ensembles he led
during and after his ASO years were his Robert Shaw Chamber Singers and the
Robert Shaw Festival Singers and he also established the Robert Shaw
Institute which sponsors the Robert Shaw Festival and encourages the
production and creation ofthe
choral arts.Known for his
countless recordings in all genres of music from glee club to sacred music
he was the recipient of forty honorary degrees and citations, four ASCAP
awards, 14 Grammy Awards, the Ditson Conductor's Award, a Kennedy Center
Honors in 1991 and a Guggenheim Fellowship, which made him the first
conductor to ever receive one. He also won several other international
awards and was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and American
Classical Music Hall of Fame.He had a stroke in 1999 and died in New Haven, Connecticut, at the
age of 82, leaving behind him a wonderful legacy of choral singing and
standards.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus recordings
Angels We Have Heard on High (Traditional
French/James Chadwick/Edward Barnes)
Telarc
80087 (CD: The Many Moods of Christmas)
Conductor
- Robert Shaw
Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus recordings
A Babe is Born (Traditional
English)
Musical Arts Association (promo CD)
Conductor Robert Shaw
Robert Shaw Chamber Singers recordings
Angels We Have Heard on High (Traditional
French/James Chadwick/Edward Barnes)
Telarc 80377 (CD: Songs of Angels)
Robert Shaw Chorale and Orchestra recordings
Angels We Have Heard on High (Traditional
French/James Chadwick/Edward Barnes)
