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The Conservatory Choir

Robert Shafer, director

The Shenandoah Conservatory Choir is nationally renowned for its high standards of excellence. Most recently, the Choir won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance for its recording of  Benjamin Britten's War Requiem which it recorded with the Washington Chorus and National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Robert Shafer.  

The Choir has been directed by Mr. Shafer since 1983, and has appeared regularly at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the National Symphony Orchestra in critically acclaimed performances of such masterworks as the Verdi Requiem, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, the Berlioz Requiem, the German Requiem of Johannes Brahms, and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.  

The Choir has sung under many of the world's great conductors including Msistislav Rostrovopovich and Leonard Slatkin. The group performed the world premiere of Jacob Druckman's Vox Humana with Mstislav Rostropovich and the the National Symphony in a performance that was broadcast nationally. It has performed with the 20th Century Consort at the Hirshhorn Museum as well as with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and several times in the distinguished concert series at the National Gallery of Art. The Choir made its Carnegie Recital Hall debut in 1985 and has toured Europe bi-annually since that time, performing throughout Germany where it is widely renowned, and Italy, France, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland and France.

For more information about the Conservatory Choir, contact Robert Shafer at rshafe2@su.edu.