Galen Marshall

Galen Marshall was the founder of the Masterworks Chorale at the College of San Mateo in San Mateo, California in September 1964. [Interview with Galen Marshall]

Biography

Born in March 1934 in Greensburg, Kansas (the city devastated by a massive tornado on May 4, 2007), Marshall's family moved to Modesto, California in 1942. He became friends with the future singer/actor Harve Presnell and they both attended Modesto High School. Marshall left Modesto to attend San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University), where he earned his B.A. and M.A. Marshall's longtime mentor at the university was Dr. John Tegnell. [Linelle Marshall]

After teaching at Bay Area high schools and the City College of San Francisco, Marshall joined the faculty of the College of San Mateo in 1963. [Interview with Galen Marshall] The college's longtime music department head, Fred Roehr, hired Marshall. He was director of both the A Capella Choir and the Masterworks Chorale, which he founded in September 1964, and taught various music classes.

With his choirs, he sought very high standards and developed a series of "rules" in his rehearsals, some of them inspired by legendary choral director Robert Shaw. A common practice was the use of singing nonsense syllables or the beat numbers during rehearsals. If a musical line descended, Marshall would advise, "Give ground grudgingly." He also advised singers not to sing faster if the music was louder or slower if the music was softer. Soft music should be sung with greater intensity, too. He also asked his basses to sing brighter when notes were especially low. [Eyewitness account by Robert E. Nylund, member of Masterworks Chorale, 1970-85]

In the early 1980s, some of Marshall's singers sang with Robert Shaw at concerts in San Francisco and then Shaw commissioned Ralph Hooper to write a new setting of the traditional mass for the Masterworks Chorale during the "Festival of Masses" at San Francisco's St. Mary's Cathedral. Longtime members of the choir still remember watching Marshall consult with Shaw during the final rehearsal. [Robert E. Nylund]

Marshall retired in 1997 and is now music director emeritus of the Masterworks Chorale. He guest conducted the Chorale in 2004 to celebrate their 40th anniversary. He has also conducted a small choral group in the Bay Area in recent years. Marshall now lives in Groveland, California with his wife, Linelle, who sang in the Masterworks Chorale and the Robert Shaw Festival Singers. He has owned a relaty for a number of years. In 2006, he directed the Schola Summer Sing. [Galen Marshall and Masterworks Chorale websites]

Footnotes

External links

* [http://barbheninger.smugmug.com/gallery/1730649_bNd2D#85494156_fABc4/ Galen Marshall directing the Schola Summer Sing in 2006]