SYNOPSIS (LONG)
Grammys. Lots of them. Civil Rights. Bach and Mozart. The Fall of the Berlin Wall. Despite very little
formal musical training, Robert Shaw had an impact on more than just the world of music. As a symphonic
conductor and the creator of exceptional choral values, his music towers as the gold standard today.
His legacy however reaches far beyond the awards, album sales and even the musical history he made.
The transcendence of his music reaches into the souls of who we are today.
Robert Shaw - Man of Many Voices is more than a great story. It is a chronological examination of his
remarkable life and meteoric rise to national fame. And, it seeks to answer the many questions surrounding
his success. Interspersed with archival film and peer interviews, the film explores Shaw’s beginnings in a
small California town through the challenges and triumphs of his serendipitous and improbable career.
How did Robert Shaw repeatedly mold groups of unpaid amateurs into one inspired and beautiful voice?
Why did legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini declare Shaw “the maestro I have been looking for?” How
was Shaw able to create a world renowned, Grammy-winning orchestra and chorus in the heart of the
“backward” South and alter civil rights history in the process?
The film looks deep into the more difficult aspects of Shaw’s life. The lifelong sense of insecurity. The
maddening work ethic. The price paid in his personal life. A tremendous risk taker, Shaw took on more
than one person could bear, leading to exhaustion and, at times, a lack of discretion. But again and again,
he rises to the occasion and beyond it to take music to levels no one else had ever achieved.
Even his harshest critics could not deny 16 Grammy Awards, nor his “Gold Album” – the first classical
album in history to sell more than one million copies.
SYNOPSIS (MEDIUM)
Robert Shaw - Man of Many Voices is a great story. But it also is a chronological examination of a
remarkable and improbable life that impacted more than just the world of music. From his beginnings in a
small California town to the meteoric rise to national fame through the challenges and triumphs of Shaw’s
serendipitous career, the film seeks to answer the many questions surrounding his success. And his impact
on Civil Rights.
The film looks deep into the more difficult aspects of Shaw’s life as well. The lifelong sense of insecurity.
The maddening work ethic. The price to his personal life. A tremendous risk taker, Shaw often took on
more than one person could bear, leading to exhaustion and, at times, a lack of discretion. But again and
again, he rose above the occasion and took music to levels no one else had ever achieved. And sometimes
accomplishing in society what others could not.
16 Grammy Awards. Plus the first classical album in history to sell more than one million copies. His legacy
though reaches far beyond the awards, album sales and even the musical history he made. The transcendence
of his music reaches into the souls of who we are today.
SYNOPSIS (SHORT)
Robert Shaw – Man of Many Voices traces the journey of a small town California boy who planned to be a
minister like his father, but instead became the greatest conductor of choral music the world has ever known.
At the heart of the film is the mystery of Shaw’s genius. With no formal musical training, he achieved a stunning
early success in popular music and later became legendary for his interpretations of classical music’s
great choral masterpieces.
An early champion of civil rights, Shaw had a mystical belief in the power of community and could communicate
his passion for music with spellbinding intensity. As Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
and Chorus in the latter half of the twentieth century, Robert Shaw changed the course of musical history
through the many voices he set on fire with an enduring love of music.