Robert Shafer

Artistic Director

ROBERT SHAFER, recognized as one of America’s major choral conductors, began a new chapter in September 2007, when he accepted the invitation of The City Choir of Washington to be its Artistic Director. He recently completed 36 years as Music Director of The Washington Chorus. In February 2000, he was honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences with a GRAMMY® Award for Best Choral Performance for the Chorus’ live performance recording of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Shafer also prepared The Oratorio Society of Washington for the GRAMMY® Award-winning recording of John Corigliano’s Of Rage and Remembrance with Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra. He prepared The Washington Chorus for the GRAMMY® Award-nominated compact disc and film soundtrack recording of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra. As Music Director, Shafer prepared The Washington Chorus for many of the world’s leading conductors, including Sir Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Zdenek Macal, Christopher Warren Green, Charles Dutoit, Kent Nagano, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Leonard Slatkin. He has guest-conducted the National Symphony Orchestra on several occasions and has conducted choral performances for NBC national television. In addition, he has conducted numerous European concert tours with the choral groups that he has prepared.

A student of the distinguished Nadia Boulanger, Shafer has been noted for his own compositions. He won first prize in composition at the American Conservatory, Fontainebleau, France, in 1969, and his works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe. When he served as music director of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, he composed and conducted a setting of Tu es Petrus in honor of Pope John Paul’s 1979 visit to Washington, D.C. Another setting of Tu es Petrus, which he wrote for The Children’s Chorus of Washington, was published by Boosey & Hawkes. He also composed and conducted a setting of Nunc Dimittis for the funeral of the Honorable Elliot Richardson, which was held at Washington National Cathedral.

Active as a teacher, Shafer taught at James Madison High School from 1968 to 1975, producing one of the finest madrigal groups in the country. He has been Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Music at the Conservatory of Music of Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, since 1983. In 1989, he was honored by the Virginia Council on Higher Education with an Outstanding Faculty Award for his outstanding public service, research, and teaching, the first teacher in the arts to receive this award.