John Shirley-Quirk
The British bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk (1931–2014) was born in Liverpool. In addition to his musical training as a violinist, he studied chemistry at the University of Liverpool, where he also worked as a lecturer, before devoting himself entirely to music.
His career began with an engagement as Vicar Choral at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. He was a member of the ensemble of the English Opera Group and Scottish Opera. Benjamin Britten wrote several baritone roles for him, including the leading role in the opera Death in Venice, in which Shirley-Quirk made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1974. From 1973, he was a member of the ensemble at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. In addition to various Mozart roles, he also sang in Debussy’s Pelleas et Mellisande and Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers. In spring 1981, Shirley-Quirk returned to the Metropolitan Opera and made a guest appearance at La Scala in Milan in December in the new production of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. He taught at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore for twenty years.
