Lift Every Voice Concert

February 5, 2010 – 7:30 p.m.

Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts

Amarillo Opera continues its annual celebration of Black History Month with an outstanding lineup for its Lift Every Voice Concert on February 5, 2010 at 7:30pm in the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts. The concert will feature a wide array of local and regional talent including Amarillo’s own Devlon Jones, Dallas Opera’s Bobby Tinnion and Afton Battle – direct from her European tour of Porgy and Bess.

This year’s headliner is prominent African-American tenor George Shirley, the Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor of Voice at the University of Michigan.

Mr. Shirley is in demand nationally and internationally as a performer, teacher and lecturer. He has won international acclaim for his performances in the world's great opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera (New York), Royal Opera (Covent Garden, London), Deutsche Oper (Berlin), Téatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Netherlands Opera (Amsterdam), L'Opéra de Monte Carlo, New York City Opera, Scottish Opera (Glasgow), Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera (Kennedy Center), Michigan Opera Theater, Glyndebourne Festival, and Santa Fe Opera.

He has recorded for RCA, Columbia, Decca, Angel, Vanguard, CRI, and Philips and received a Grammy Award in 1968 for his role (Ferrando) in the RCA recording of Mozart's Così fan tutte.

In addition to oratorio and concert literature, Mr. Shirley has, in a career that spans 49 years, performed more than 80 operatic roles in major opera houses around the globe with many of the world's most renowned conductors (Solti, Klemperer, Stravinsky, Ormandy, von Karajan, Colin Davis, Boehm, Ozawa, Haitink, Boult, Leinsdorf, Boulez, DePriest, Krips, Cleva, Dorati, Pritchard, Bernstein, Maazel and others).

Professor Shirley was a pioneer in the world of opera and civil rights – the first African-American to be appointed to a high school teaching post in music in Detroit, the first African-American member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington, D.C., and the first African-American tenor and second African-American male to sing leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, where he remained for eleven years.

Mr. Shirley has served as a master teacher in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Intern Program for Young NATS Teachers. He was also a member of the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School for ten years.

As always, proceeds from the event will support the educational outreach programs of Amarillo Opera and scholarship for deserving students.

Tickets for the event are $15 and are available at Panhandle Tickets.