John Shirley-Quirk
Born in Liverpool, England, bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1975. He created leading rôles in Benjamin Britten’s church parables and in the operas Owen Wingrave and Death in Venice, and took on major opera rôles at London’s Covent Garden, Milan’s La Scala, and New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
