Ron Shirey came to University Christian Church in August of 1976, as Director of Music and choirmaster, one month before he assumed the job of Director of Choral Activities, at TCU. The two jobs at TCU and UCC have nothing to do with one another, really, as they have been separate situations, almost totally, for years and years. Shirey came to UCC on the heels of Dr. Stephen Farish, then Professor of Voice at North Texas State University, in Denton, who had followed Jerry Forderhaase, prior to that. Each had four years of service as the full-time Director of Music at UCC, since 1968, following Roger Melone, and Bev Henson, before that. In January of 1983, Shirey additionally became Chorus Director for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, while concurrently holding the job as "titular director" of the Ft.Worth Opera Chorus. During that year, he found the "Director of Music" title at UCC too much to hold onto, with TCU, and UCC, and became the "Choirmaster", alone, with directorship of the Chancel Choir as his sole responsibility at UCC. Subsequently, he retired from the Dallas Symphony Chorus in '93, after ten years of driving back and forth to Dallas for the many performances of the Symphony with the Chorus. It has been said (and written) that he was responsible for giving the Dallas Symphony Chorus its reputation and prestige, during those years. The Ft. Worth - TCU Symphonic Chorus has been his work for Symphonic choirs since stopping with the DSO, and they have been heard in performances in Midland-Odessa, Irving, San Angelo, and in Ft. Worth in productions of choral-orchestral masterpieces like Carmina Burana of Orff, the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, and Bach's St. Matthew Passion.
Professor Ronald Shirey came to TCU as Director of Choral Activities in 1976. Holder of two degrees from the University of Tulsa, he completed graduate study at the University of Texas, Austin, and at Arizona State University, Tempe. Shirey’s choirs have performed throughout Europe, Asia, and many times in Mexico, including the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City with the National Symphony of Mexico and Maestro Herrera de la Fuente, where they performed Mozart’s Requiem, Prokofieff’s Alexander Nevsky, and Poulenc’s Stabat Mater.
Since coming to TCU, the university’s choirs have been featured in multiple performances for the conventions of ACDA and TMEA. Three National Conventions of ACDA in San Diego, Chicago, and San Antonio have featured the TCU Chorale in one venue or another. TMEA performances include concerts in 1979, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2002, and most recently 2006. In December 2007, the choirs performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall for a sixth time.
Professor Shirey was Chorus Director for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 1983 until 1993, during which time he conducted both the DSO and Chorus, and prepared them for works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofieff, Orff, Brahms, Verdi, Mahler, Poulenc, and Bernstein for conductors Robert Shaw, Eduardo Mata, John Nelson, and Jerzy Semkow. He prepared and conducted the Mozart Grand Mass in C Minor (K.427A) with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 1993.
The amalgam of UCC's Chancel Choir and the Choral Union of TCU has also been responsible for the several performances they have enjoyed with New York's Pops Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, under the direction of Skitch Henderson, for which they have become very well known in that city. Starting in 1993, they have been heard in Christmas productions, and in a special performance of Richard Rodgers' music that commemorated his 100th birthday in Carnegie Hall, in April, 2002. So far, the Fort Worth-TCU Symphonic Choir has sung in Carnegie Hall six times and has been invited back to perform in December 2010.
