Shaw, Robert (1916–1999)

US conductor. He founded the Robert Shaw Chorale in 1948; with this ensemble he gave many performances in the USA and abroad of works by Bartók, Britten, and Copland, in addition to the standard repertory. He was an early US advocate of performances of Bach and Handel using small forces.

He founded the Collegiate Chorale, New York, in 1941 and with them gave the 1946 first performance of Hindemith's Walt Whitman Requiem. He made his debut as an orchestra conductor the same year, with the National Broadcasting Company Symphony Orchestra. He worked at the Juilliard School, New York, and at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts. In 1948 he founded the Robert Shaw Chorale. He worked with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestras 1956–67 and with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 1967–88.