Celebrated tenor performing at Baldwin Library

Celebrated tenor George I. Shirley and accompanist Stanley Waldon will be presenting a recital at the Baldwin Public Library on Tuesday, September 9, at 3 p.m. in the library’s atrium as part of Baldwin’s summer Notes in the Atrium series.

Featuring pieces by Richard Strauss, Henri Duparc, Henry Purcell, Charles T. Griffes, Leslie Adams, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, along with several Negro spirituals, the recital will honor the memory of Shirley’s late wife, Gladys Lee Shirley, who passed away in March 2025.

George I. Shirley, whose career has spanned more than 50 years, has won international acclaim for his performances in the world’s great opera houses and received a Grammy Award in 1968 for his role of Ferrando in the RCA recording of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. 

An emeritus professor at the University of Michigan, Shirley was 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.

The Baldwin Public Library is located in downtown Birmingham at 300 W. Merrill Street.