{"id":2421,"date":"2023-01-17T12:25:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T17:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2421"},"modified":"2023-01-17T12:25:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T17:25:18","slug":"george-shirley-a-life-in-music-on-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2023\/01\/george-shirley-a-life-in-music-on-npr.html","title":{"rendered":"“George Shirley: A Life in Music” on NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Harry Burleigh, who turned spirituals into concert songs sung by Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson, wrote in 1917 that \u201cthe voice is not nearly so important as the spirit\u201d in performing his historic arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Shirley, still singing at the age of eighty-nine<\/em>, is an artist who today gloriously affirms Burleigh\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1961, Shirley became the first Black tenor to sing leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera. He subsequently pursued a notable international career. Today, he continues to sing in concert. It is my privilege to sometimes accompany him \u2013 and to have produced the Martin Luther King Day NPR special \u201cGeorge Shirley: A Life in Music.\u201d It may be the best radio show I\u2019ve ever created. You can hear it\u00a0here<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shirley tenor remains strong and true. If its firmness and luster are compromised, in their place is a different kind of steadiness: to stand still and peer deep. Shirley says of Marian Anderson: \u201cShe was attuned in such a manner that the spirit sang through her.\u201d And so it does when George Shirley sings Harry Burleigh\u2019s \u201cDeep River\u201d (go to 43:00).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of his path to the Met, Shirley says: \u201cI never intended to be an opera singer. I was following a script written by the intelligence that created me. When doors were opened, they were opened by people on the inside.\u201d When Shirley became the first Black member of the United States Army Chorus, its director, Samuel Loboda, took an exceptional initiative: he phoned the Pentagon while Shirley waited outside his office. When Shirley sang Romantic leads opposite the Met\u2019s glamorous white sopranos, he accepted an invitation proferred by the company\u2019s general manager, Rudolf Bing, who ignored resistance among his affluent board members. \u201cI didn\u2019t plan that,\u201d Shirley says. \u201cI had chosen to become a public school music teacher in Detroit. It was all in place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Shirley was more than a passive instrument of change. When the Met visited Atlanta, he decided to have his hair cut and happened to choose a barber shop that had never before served Black customers \u2013 of which he became the first. When a leading New York music critic, Irving Kolodin, wrote that he \u201cdid not look like a French nobleman\u201d singing the Chevalier Des Grieux in Puccini\u2019s Manon Lescaut<\/em>, Shirley wrote Kolodin a letter inquiring what, exactly, a French nobleman looked like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, crucially, doorkeepers invited Shirley inside in response to his evident gifts and character. I have no doubt that the same was true of Roland Hayes and Marian Anderson \u2013 and of Harry Burleigh. It is a lineage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My thanks, as always, to Peter Bogdanoff, my peerless technical producer, and Rupert Allman, the producer of \u201c1A,\u201d who commissions and hosts my \u201cMore than Music\u201d radio documentaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For links to all eight previous \u201cMore than Music\u201d documentaries, visit www.josephhorowitz.com <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LISTENING GUIDE:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5:14 — George Shirley on Roland Hayes; Roland Hayes sings Schubert<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8:05 — George Shirley sings Roland Hayes’ “L’il Boy” (JH, piano)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13:25 — George Shirley on Marian Anderson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16::58 — George Shirley sings Mozart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18:50 — How George Shirley became the first Black member of the US Army Chorus<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24:20 — Irving Kolodin writes that George Shirley “does not look like a French nobleman”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

32:30 — George Shirley sings Harry Burleigh’s “Swing Low” (Deloise Lima, piano)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

35:55 — George Shirley sings “Oh Freedom”. (Lara Downes, piano)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

43:00 — George Shirley sings Burleigh’s “Deep River” (JH, piano)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harry Burleigh, who turned spirituals into concert songs sung by Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson, wrote in 1917 that \u201cthe voice is not nearly so important as the spirit\u201d in performing his historic arrangements. George Shirley, still singing at the age of eighty-nine, is an artist who today gloriously affirms Burleigh\u2019s claim. In 1961, Shirley became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-D3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2421"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2429,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421\/revisions\/2429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}