One of America’s most versatile tenors and enlightened musicians, George Shirley remains in demand nationally and internationally as performer, teacher, and lecturer.
He has won international acclaim for his performances with The Metropolitan Opera, and with major opera houses and festivals in England, Germany, Austria, Argentina, the Netherlands, Monte Carlo, Scotland, Italy, Japan, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Santa Fe, and Detroit, among others.
Mr. Shirley has recorded for the RCA, Columbia, DECCA, Angel, Vanguard, C.R.I, Capriccio, Philips, and Albany labels; he received a Grammy Award in 1968 for his role (Ferrando) in the prize-winning RCA recording of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. He has performed more than 80 operatic roles over the span of his 64-year career, as well as oratorio and concert literature with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras (e.g., London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Symphony, and the major orchestras of New York City, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Boston) and conductors (Solti, Stravinsky, Leinsdorf, Ormandy, Klemperer, Bernstein, Maazel, Colin Davis, von Karajan, Schippers, Steinberg, Ozawa, et al.). As recitalist he has collaborated with William Bolcom, Charles Wadsworth, Philip Eisenberg, Martin Isepp, Jonathan Brice, John Wustman, Kelly Wyatt, George Posell, and Martin Katz, to name but a few.
He was the first Black tenor and the second African American male to sing leading roles with The Metropolitan Opera, where he remained for 11 years as a leading artist. He was the first Black high school vocal music teacher in the Detroit Public Schools and the first Black member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington, D.C. The Opera News January 2004 issue featured a retrospective of Mr. Shirley’s career, Reunion: George Shirley, by Eric Myers. A new article, Talking with a Legend, written by Kenneth Overton and published in the Opera News February 24, 2022 issue, again focused on the tenor’s 63-year presence on the lyric stage.
George Shirley is The Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. In 2015 he received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama, and in 2022 Opera America inducted him into their new Hall of Fame.
Così fan tutte (debut) with Teresa Stich-Randall; later with Phyllis Curtain, Lucine Amara
Butterfly (official debut) with Dorothy Kirsten; later with Licia Albanese, Teresa Stratas, Radmila Bakocevic, Martina Arroyo
Traviata with Anna Moffo; later with Gabriella Tucci, Montserrat Caballé, Jeannette Pilou, Colette Boky, Maralin Niska, Clarice Carson
Barber of Seville with Roberta Peters; later with Gianna D’Angelo, Mildred Miller, Laurel Hurley, Reri Grist, Teresa Berganza
La bohème with Raina Kabaivanska
Simon Boccanegra with Renata Tebaldi
Falstaff with Judith Raskin
L’elisir d’amore with Renata Scotto
Don Giovanni with Leontyne Price, Edda Moser
Die Zauberflöte with Pilar Lorengar, Edith Mathis, Teresa Zylis-Gara, Adriana Maliponte
Carmen with Joanne Grillo; later with Grace Bumbry, Ruza Baldani, Viorica Cortez
Roméo et Juliet with Mirella Freni; later with Mary Ellen Pracht
La Sonnambula with Joan Sutherland
Flying Dutchman with Marion Lippert
Lucia with Nadja Witkowska, Gail Robinson
Mr. Shirley, 88, is the Jackie Robinson/Sidney Poitier of opera. He is: