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A Conversation with George Shirley, Part 1

2021; Routledge; Volume: 78; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.53830/hiph5236

2769-4046

Leslie Holmes,

New Zealand Economic and Social Studies

A Conversation with George Shirley, Part 1 Leslie Holmes (bio) THE VOCAL POINT Over Zoom, tenor George Shirley and I had the following conversation … Leslie Holmes: You have been singing since you were a very little boy. Most of the references I have read say that you have been singing in church since you were four. I sang in church when I was three. Is it four, for you? George Shirley: That was a long time ago, so I can't exactly pinpoint whether it was three or four. LH: It was wonderful, because both of your parents were musicians. And, when you were only five, you won a competition. GS: Right. It was sponsored by a big department store in Indianapolis, where I was born. The name of the store was Blocks. They introduced a children's singing contest, and my parents entered me in it. I won second prize with the opportunity to make my first recording. My dad was playing piano for me. I sang an old Bing Crosby song, "There's a Gold Mine in the Sky." So, that was my debut recording. I can see myself standing in the room while I was recording. It was fascinating, because it was back in the day of thick wax on the recording. There was all this wax curling down to the floor while I was singing. LH: In one of your many interviews you were asked, "Were you motivated?" How would you answer that? GS: Well, yes. We had a lot of music, both in church and at home. We had a piano in the living room. I responded to all of this. My parents and I formed a trio. We sang at tea after church and at different churches in the area. I also sang recitals. This was just what we did together as a family. I was born nine years after my parents were married. I was surrounded by love. Both of my parents came from larger families, my dad from a Click for larger view View full resolution George Shirley [End Page 405] family of 14 and my mother from a family of eight. Here I came along and we just sang. LH: That's wonderful. I read your answer about motivation, which was "I love to sing." GS: I look at myself and I think I could take any impairment to my health as long as it wasn't something that took away my voice. LH: When you were six, your parents moved to Detroit. I understand that the music in the Detroit public schools was excellent. GS: Top notch. Detroit is second to none in the country. There was a man named Fowler Smith, back in the forties, who was able to convince the powers that be that music education in the schools was as important as the sciences and everything else. The system was fabulous. From the first grade on, students went to a music teacher who was trained to teach music to children. She or he had her/his own room with all the accoutrements one needs in order to teach music. So, by the sixth grade, if a child had any musical talent whatsoever, the child was musically literate. They had been taught to read music. In junior high school we had excellent choirs. By senior high school, we had phenomenal choirs. I didn't go to the magnet school in Detroit, called Cass Technical High School. It was like a college. Students could major in music, or art, or whatever they wanted, and yet, they studied all the other subjects as well. I went to Northern High School, which had some whites, many Blacks, and some foreign students who came to learn English. We had a top notch vocal teacher. She was a Canadian woman named Claire Weimer. She introduced us to a wide range of music, different in no way from that being taught in the other high schools. My first experience singing anything from Messiah came in high school. Every Christmas there was a performance of Messiah, with an alumni chorus that came back to join us. LH: That's amazing. GS: It...