Harold Shaw, Manager
of Major Classical Artists, Dies at 90
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/arts/music/harold-shaw-manager-of-major-classical-artists-dies-at-90.html?_r=2
Harold Shaw, an
artist manager whose clients included some of the most famous performers in
classical music, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.
The cause was
pancreatic cancer, said his son, José R. Cifuentes.
During his career Mr.
Shaw’s starry roster included the guitarists Julian Bream and John Williams,
the violinist Nathan Milstein, the cellist Jacqueline du Pré and the singers
Jessye Norman and Janet Baker. A friend of the pianist Vladimir Horowitz and
his wife, Wanda, Mr. Shaw was instrumental in persuading Horowitz, who suffered
from depression and stage fright, to return to regular performances in 1974
after a long absence.
Mr. Shaw, who began
his career working with the celebrated impresario Sol Hurok, founded his own
agency, Shaw Concerts, in 1969. He was outspoken about perennial issues in the
classical music industry like arts education and funding, and was critical of
the tradition of hiring big names no matter the cost.
In 1986 he told The
New York Times that concert presenters “ought to be paying for the artists they
can afford,” adding: “Instead they book someone on the hope that they can find
funding for it. Their deficits grow, their boards become exasperated by making
it up; the institution ends up closing.”
Mr. Shaw was one of
the first managers to see the potential for classical music in East Asia,
organizing tours there for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and soloists like the
pianist Van Cliburn.
Mr. Shaw retired in
1996 and closed his company. He left the business, Mr. Cifuentes said, in part
became he was tired of having to “babysit” the artists he represented.
Francis Harold Shaw
was born on June 11, 1923, in Hebron,
N.Y. His mother, Leslie, was a
homemaker, and his father, Robert, worked in the livestock industry. He
attended Ithaca College but was drafted before
completing a degree.
During World War II
he joined the Army Air Corps and worked as a fitness instructor and as an actor
in a traveling troupe that entertained troops. After the war, he had a brief
stint at the play publisher Samuel French, but left after becoming tired of
“reading five bad plays a day.” He moved to the artist management industry soon
afterward.
Mr. Shaw had lived in
the Apthorp on the Upper West Side since 1961.
In addition to Mr. Cifuentes, he is survived by a sister, Lorraine Gould; two brothers, Stanley and
Walter; and a grandson.