Don Shirley

This article is about the musician. For the diver, see Don Shirley (diver).

Donald Shirley
Birth name	Donald Walbridge Shirley
Born	January 29, 1927 (1927-01-29) (age 84) Kingston, Jamaica
Genres	Classical, jazz, gospel, Pop
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Piano Organ
Years active	1945–present
Labels	Cadence Records, Columbia Records, Atlantic Records

Don Shirley (born January 29, 1927)^[1] is an American-Jamaican jazz pianist and composer.

Shirley's prodigious piano skills were recognized early and Shirley began his career as a composer and virtuoso performer at a young age.^[1]

Don Shirley's music is hard to categorize. It is possible to say that as an arranger-composer he treats each piece of music as a new composition, not just an arrangement. Don plays Standards in a non-standard way. He is a virtuoso, playing everything from show tunes, to ballads, to his personal arrangements of Negro spirituals, to jazz, and always with the overtone of a classically-trained musician who has utmost respect for the music he is playing.^[1]

Biography

Don Shirley was born Donald Walbridge Shirley, 29 January 1927, Kingston, Jamaica. His first teacher was his mother. He began playing piano at age of 2½ and made his first public performance at the age of 3. At the age of nine he was invited to study theory with Mittolovski at the Leningrad Conservatory of Music, and he later studied with famous organist Conrad Bernier and studied advanced composition with both Bernier and Dr. Thaddeus Jones at Catholic University of America in Washington D. C.

He made his concert debut at the age of 18 with the Boston Pops June 25, 1945, with Dean Dixon as guest conductor playing the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor concerto. In 1946 his first major composition was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.^[1]

In 1949 he received an invitation from the Haitian government to play at the Exposition International du Bi-Centenaire De Port-au-Prince followed by a request from Archbishop Le Goise and President Estime for a repeat performance the following week.^[1]

At Arthur Fiedler's invitation he appeared with the Boston Pops in Chicago in June 1954. He performed the Tchaikovsky concerto in the fall of 1968 with the Detroit Symphony. He has appeared as soloist with the Detroit Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the NBC Symphony, and the National Symphony Orchestra Washington to name only a few. Including his appearances with the trio, he averaged some 95 concerts a year.

He has written symphonies performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, and has composed four organ symphonies, numerous pieces for piano, two string quartets, and a piano concerto. He played as soloist with the orchestra at Milan's La Scala opera house in a program dedicated to Gershwin's music. Only two other pianists have performed there as soloists, Arthur Rubinstein and Sviatoslav Richter.

He holds a Doctorate of Music, Doctorate of Psychology (University of Chicago, Phi Beta Kappa), and Doctorate in Liturgical Arts. He speaks eight languages fluently, and is considered an expert painter as well.

He abandoned the piano as a career while quite young, and it was while in Chicago as a psychologist that Don "tripped" back into a musical career. He was given a grant to study the relationship, if any, between music and juvenile crime wave which had suddenly broken out in the early 1950s. Working in a small club there, he used his knowledge and skill to perform experiments in sound, whereby he proved that certain tonal combinations affected the audience's reactions. No one in the audience knew of his experiment, or that students had been planted among them to gauge their reactions. But Don Shirley the pianist became a sensation.

During the 1950s and 60s he cut some 16 albums for Cadence Records. He then began to make appearances in New York followed, notably at "Basin Street East", where Duke Ellington first heard him. Here started their warm friendship which was highlighted by Don's performance in 1955 of the premiere of Duke's Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall with the NBC Symphony of the Air. An appearance on the Arthur Godfrey Show launched his career nationwide.

He has composed 3 symphonies, two piano concerti, a cello concerto, three string quartets, a one-act opera, works for organ, piano and violin, a symphonic tone poem based on Finnegan's Wake and a set of "Variations" on the legend of Orpheus in the Underworld.

Quotes

Igor Stravinsky has said of him, "His virtuosity is worthy of Gods."

Sarah Vaughan "The most glorious sense of shading, phrasing and balance I've ever heard."

Artie Shaw says "Don Shirley brings dignity where it is needed."

Bentley Stegner Chicago Sun-Times: "He can play big round notes that fall as softly as velvet, or make bright, little ones leap up like the tinkle of ice in a glass."

Archie Bleyer "I say he is a uniquely talented creative artist - perhaps a genius - who brings an extraordinary musical experience to anyone who listens to him with an open mind and an open heart."

The Christian Science Monitor says "Don is destined to revolutionize the popular forms of music."

Discography

• Tonal Expressions
• Piano Perspectives
• Orpheus In Underworld
• Improvisations
• Solos
• With Two Basses
• Plays Love Songs
• Trio
• Pianist Extraordinary
• Famous Spirituals
• Birdland Lullabies
• Plays Show Tunes
• Golden Classics
• The Don Shirley Point of View
• Home With Don Shirley
• Pianist Extraordinaire 1 (Box Set)
• Pianist Extraordinaire 2 (Box Set)
• Tonal Expressions
• Piano Perspectives
• Orpheus in the Underworld
• Duo Improvisations
• Solos
• Don Shirley (with two basses)
• Don Shirley Plays Gershwin
• Standards
• Love Songs
• Don Shirley Plays Birdland Lullabies
• Showtunes
• Plays Shirley
• Tonal Expressions Vol. 1
• Tonal Expressions Vol. 2
• Piano Perspective Vol. 1
• Don Shirley (1959)
• Don Shirley Trio (1961)
• Pianist Extraordinary (1962)
• Piano Spirituals (1962)
• Don Shirley Presents Martha Flowers (1962)
• Drown In My Own Tears (1962)
• Don Shirley Trio in Concert (1968)
• Gospel According to Don Shirley (1969)
• Home with Donald Shirley (2001)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} allmusic Biography

External links

• "Jamaica's Classical Musicians"
• "The Cadence Story"
• "Shirleys of African-American Ancestry Research Center"
• "Jazz Review"
• "Discography of Cathedral Church of St. John The Divine New York City"
• "Bassist - Richard Davis"
• "Misc. Blog article"
• "New York Times Article Dec.7/82"
• "Afri-Classical.com"
• "Misc. dicussion board"
• "A Don Shirley Tribute"
• Interviewed by Josef Birdman Astor in "Lost Bohemia", a 2010 documentary about the Carnegie Hall studios, where Shirley lived and worked for many years.

Persondata
Name	Shirley, Don
Alternative names
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Date of birth	1927-01-29
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