Robert Lawson Shaw was born on April 30, 1916 in Red Bluff, California. From 1934 to 1938 Shaw studied at Pomona College, where he directed the glee club.

Shaw made contact with Fred Waring, who then asked him to direct the Fred Waring Glee Club starting in 1938, which he continued to do until 1945. He moved to New York in 1938 to pursue a career in choir training and teaching. In 1941 Shaw founded the Collegiate Choir of the Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue. Within a year, the 120-strong choir performed at Carnegie Hall. He continued to conduct there until 1954, during which time he was named America’s Conductor of the Year (1943) and received a Guggenheim fellowship (1944).

From 1946 to 1948 Shaw served as the director of the choral departments of the Julliard School and the Berkshire Music Center. He founded the 40-singer Robert Shaw Chorale, with which he toured internationally and made recordings until they disbanded in 1965. He returned to his home state of California in 1953 to conduct the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, where he served as conductor until 1956.

Robert Shaw became the associate conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1956 under George Szell. There he created the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus to be adjunct to the orchestra; an amateur chorus drawing upon adult singers from the Cleveland area. The chorus performed a diverse repertory, singing works of contemporary composers as well as choral standards of Bach and Mozart. He left the chorus in 1967 to assume the role of music director for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, where he remained until he was named the music director emeritus and conductor laureate in 1988. Also in 1988 Shaw founded the Robert Shaw Institute at Emory University to promote choral singing.

Shaw passed away in New Haven, Connecticut on January 25, 1999. To this day, he greatly influences the legacy of the American choral tradition. As an article from the Spring 1999 issue (vol. 140) of the Musical Times put it, Robert Shaw “did much to ensure the present high standard of American choral singing, and though chiefly a zealous missionary and animateur for the cause, was also an innovator.”