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Shaw’s Life & Legacy
Written By: Mary Adair Trumbly - Highlands PAC | Issue: 2016/07 - July
A new film documentary on the life and legacy of conductor and choral legend Robert Shaw has premiered in Atlanta and New York and is coming to the Highlands Performing Arts Center at 7:30 P.M. Wednesday, July 6.
The voices rising up to praise the beauty and insight of the film “Robert Shaw – Man of Many Voices” are only eclipsed by those in tribute to the man himself. Even The New York Times calls the film “poignant and compelling” and references the celebrated conductor as a “tremendous force.”
There are a few – although growing – opportunities to see this film in the type of acoustical setting that does its choral beauty justice. Highlands-Cashiers is one of the early ones.
Robert Shaw would have been 100 years old in 2016. In celebration, there have already been numerous interviews and articles on the man’s accomplishments and legacies. Many laud him as a great conductor. He did win 16 Grammys, after all, including the first gold record for a classical music al- bum. It is his work with choral groups, though, that elicits the most heartfelt remembrances. The movie captures many of these. From classical icons like Sylvia McNair, Yoyo Ma and the late Florence Klopoff to political greats like former president Jimmy Carter and former ambassador Andrew Young, the praises are universal. The voices of the choristers and musicians who worked with him, though, offer some of the most moving moments.
Maestro Shaw’s influence went well beyond classical music. How many recall his being a star in the world of pop music before his classical years? Or the musical diplomatic tours behind the Iron Curtain? His early activism for civil rights, even when not to his bene- fit, is perhaps most easily overshadowed and yet no less important.
And now the voice of The New York Times music critic James Oestreich weighs in, “An obvious labor of love. Admirably clear-eyed in its warts-and-all perspective.”
This screening is presented by the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival and the Highlands Performing Arts Center.
Tickets are available by calling (828) 526- 9060 or emailing [email protected]
Highlands Performing Arts Center is located at 507 Chestnut Street.
