THE COLLABORATIVE ARRANGEMENTS OF ALICE PARKER AND ...

Four years later, Shaw founded and directed the Collegiate Chorale, a highly dedicated
amateur New York chorus of 185 singers that grew into a significant symphonic chorus under his
leadership. Shaw prepared the Collegiate Chorale for performances by such renowned
conductors as ArturoToscanini, Leopold Stokowski, and Bruno Walter. As his prodigious
musicianship became apparent, these musicians and others urged Shaw to remedy his lack of
technical musical training. This was accomplished by intense structural and analytical studies
with Julius Herford through a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1942 and 1943, the first such
fellowship ever awarded to a conductor. 8
During the 1940’s Shaw established a reputation in America through performances which
brought a quality of excellence to choral singing that had not previously been experienced by
American audiences. 9 In 1949 Shaw formed the Robert Shaw Chorale, which, under the
auspices of the U.S. State Department, performed in thirty countries throughout Europe, the
Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Latin America. Throughout his career, Shaw received
honors including degrees and citations from forty U.S. colleges and universities, thirteen
Grammy awards, and numerous awards including England’s Gramophone Award, a Gold Record
for the first RCA classical recording to sell more than a million copies, four ASCAP Awards for
service to contemporary music, the Alice M. Ditson Award for service to contemporary music,
the Kennedy Center Honors, Musical America’s Musician of the Year Award, the National
Medal of the Arts awarded in 1992 in a White House ceremony, and the Conductor’s Guild
8 Ibid., 53-54.
9 Ray Robinson, “Robert Shaw: A Tribute,” Choral Journal 39, no. 8 (March, 1999): 33, 83.
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