John Shirley-Quirk

John Stanton Shirley-Quirk CBE (28 August 19317 April 2014) was an English bass-baritone. A member of the English Opera Group from 1964 to 1976, he gave premiere performances of several operatic and vocal works by Benjamin Britten, recording these and other works under the composer's direction. He also sang and recorded a wide range of works by other composers, ranging from Handel through Tchaikovsky to Henze.

Biography Shirley-Quirk was born in Liverpool and sang in the choir at Holt High School (today the Childwall Sports & Science Academy). He was a Vicar Choral (choir singer or lay-clerk) at St Paul's Cathedral from 1961 to 1962.

In 1961 Shirley-Quirk was understudy for the role of Gregor Mittenhofer in the British premiere of Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers at the Glyndebourne Festival, and in the following year made his operatic debut in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande as the Doctor. The following year he took part as a soloist in Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Ipswich, which was attended by Benjamin Britten, who introduced himself. Shirley-Quirk subsequently joined Britten's English Opera Group (EOG) in 1964. His first role with the EOG was to create the part of the ferryman in Curlew River, He created the role of Gil-Martin in Thomas Wilson's Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1976).

In Shirley-Quirk's wide concert repertory, he was particularly noted as a fine interpreter of Friar Lawrence in Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette, and in the solos in Bach's Passions, Handel's oratorios, Haydn's The Creation and The Seasons, Brahms's German Requiem, Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius (which he recorded with Britten conducting) and Tippett's The Vision of St Augustine (recorded under the composer's baton in 1971). He also distinguished himself as an intelligent and sympathetic interpreter of lieder, mélodies and English song.

Shirley-Quirk was appointed associate artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1982.

Personal life In 1975, Shirley-Quirk was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Shirley-Quirk was married to Patricia ("Pat") Hastie, who died in 1981, then oboist Sara Watkins, who died in 1997. In 2009 he married cellist Teresa Perez. He died of cancer at the age of 82 in Bath on 7 April 2014.