Today In Black History: Professor George Shirley
The first African-American tenor to perform a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Issue #868 Today In Black History, Monday, June 9, 2025
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Throughout June, “Black Music Month,” we are highlighting Black musicians.
George Shirley was born on April 18, 1934, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He emerged as a groundbreaking tenor and became the first African American tenor to perform a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Shirley earned a bachelor's degree in music education from Wayne State University in 1955 and was then drafted into the Army, where he became the first Black member of the United States Army Chorus. He was also the first African American hired to teach music in Detroit high schools.
In 1960, at the age of 26, he won a National Arts Club scholarship competition, and the following April, he became the first Black singer to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions scholarship competition. Shirley is the first Black tenor and the second Black male to sing leading roles for the Metropolitan Opera. He sang there for 11 seasons.
Shirley has also appeared at several opera theaters and with numerous orchestras in the United States and Europe. He has sung more than 80 roles.
He was on the faculty of the University of Maryland from 1980 to 1987, when he moved to the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where he was Director of the Vocal Arts Division.
He currently serves as the Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Professor of Music and continues to maintain a studio at the school.
In 1968, Shirley won a Grammy Award for his performance in the role of Ferrando in the RCA recording of Mozart's Così fan tutte. He has been a master teacher three times in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Intern Program for Young NATS Teachers. He has taught dozens of up-and-coming vocalists for ten years at the Aspen Music Festival and School.
In 2015, Mr. Shirley received the National Medal of Arts, bestowed upon him by President Barack Obama. In 2016, he was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award during the National Opera Association's annual convention.
Shirley was presented with the William Warfield Legacy Award in 2019 for his dedication to the advancement of African American classical vocalists and the legacy of William Warfield.
George Shirley sings "Vergin, tutto amor" from '24 Italian Songs & Arias,' the classic Schirmer songbook originally published in 1894.
Today In Black History
In 1924, Black American jazz pioneer pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton recorded the “Jelly Roll Blues.”
In 1983, Black composer (“Ragtime”) and musician Scott Joplin was commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp.
In 2013, Cicely Tyson won the Best Actress Tony Award for her performance as Miss Carrie Watts in “The Trip to Bountiful.”
In 2020, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed General Charles Q. Brown as the Air Force Chief of Staff, making him the first African American to lead a U.S. armed forces branch.
This was truly a trail blazer. WWII was the Double V Campaign - fighting fascism abroad and racism at home.