1. Donald Walbridge Shirley was an American classical and jazz pianist and composer.
17 Facts About Don Shirley
1. 2.
Don Shirley recorded many albums for Cadence Records during the 1950s and 1960s, experimenting with jazz with a classical influence.
3.
Don Shirley wrote organ symphonies, piano concerti, a cello concerto, three string quartets, a one-act opera, works for organ, piano and violin, a symphonic poem based on the 1939 novel Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, and a set of "Variations" on the 1858 opera Orpheus in the Underworld.
4.
Don Shirley's birthplace was sometimes incorrectly given as Kingston, Jamaica, because his label advertised him as being Jamaican-born.
5.
Don Shirley started to learn piano when he was two years old.
6.
Don Shirley briefly enrolled at Virginia State University and Prairie View College, both historically black universities, then studied with Conrad Bernier and Thaddeus Jones at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he received his bachelor's degree in music in 1953.
7.
Don Shirley was known as "Dr Shirley" for his two honorary doctorates.
8.
Don Shirley studied psychology at the University of Chicago and began work in Chicago as a psychologist.
9.
Don Shirley was given a grant to study the relationship between music and juvenile crime, which had broken out in the postwar era of the early 1950s.
10.
At Arthur Fiedler's invitation, Don Shirley appeared with the Boston Pops in Chicago in June 1954.
11.
Don Shirley appeared on TV on Arthur Godfrey and His Friends.
12.
Don Shirley performed in New York City at Basin Street East, where Duke Ellington heard him and they started a friendship.
13.
Don Shirley had three brothers with whom, according to his family, he kept in touch.
14.
In late 1968, Don Shirley performed the Tchaikovsky 1st Piano Concerto with the Detroit Symphony.
15.
Don Shirley worked with the Chicago Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra.
16.
Don Shirley wrote symphonies for the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra.
17.
Don Shirley played as soloist with the orchestra at Milan's La Scala opera house in a program dedicated to George Gershwin's music.