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For 21 years, Robert Shaw served at the artistic helm of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He came in like a whirlwind, presenting ambitious concerts of difficult music, speaking about Atlanta's need for a conservatory of music, looking for black musicians to play in the all-white orchestra, successfully lobbying to have black members added to the ASO's Board, and introducing the city to more contemporary music than it had ever heard before. Hard though he may have driven his players and singers, he pushed himself harder. His attention to detail and his capacity for endless hours of score study and preparation were phenomenal. Unlike most high-profile conductors, he had no other orchestra half a globe away, and he accepted few dates to conduct elsewhere. Shaw had come to Atlanta to be Music Director, and he considered it a full-time commitment.
He also began the ASO Chamber Chorus in order to enhance the choral offerings of the Orchestra. With Robert Shaw at the helm, the Orchestra's choral music naturally grew in importance and excellence. To the Chamber Chorus he added the larger ASO Chorus in 1970, supervising the recruitment, auditioning and training of more than 200 volunteer singers and conducting their debut in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Whether entrusting the weekly training of the Choruses to assistants or assuming the duties himself, he always encouraged and inspired his singers with his own insights into technique, musical discipline and compositional greatness, and his Choruses consistently reaped high praise for their performances.
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