“Robert Shaw, a singular, sometimes prickly personality, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1967-1988, built the ASO into an ensemble of national prominence and the ASO Chorus into an unparalleled choir,” writes Bo Emerson in Thursday’s (3/10) Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He would have been 100 years old next month. To acknowledge the occasion, the ASO is hosting a series of events, beginning with a concert Thursday and Saturday featuring the orchestra, the ASO Chorus and a program of Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Durufle and others. Though he died in 1999, Shaw’s imprint on the ASO and the ASO Chorus is still indelible. … Rick Clement, a tenor soloist with the ASO Chorus, [said], ‘Shaw had a way … of making you feel like you were either pleasing or displeasing the composer himself…. He really did talk to you as if you weren’t just disappointing him, you were disappointing Mozart.’ … ‘Robert Shaw: Man of Many Voices,’ a documentary of his life, [is] set to premiere next month, also at Symphony Hall…. The movie will be screened April 24, closer to Shaw’s April 30 birthday, but audiences at the ASO concerts this week will get a sneak peek.”
Posted March 10, 2016
Photo of Robert Shaw by Al Clayton
