Irene Sherrock: Singular Sensation

–by Jeanne Morrow
- photos courtesy of Irene Sherrock

Do you remember the Arts Committee production of New York, New York and the glamorous lady leaning on the piano, working the crowd, as she sweetly sang her tale of poisoning pigeons in the park? Well . . .

Once upon a time a baby girl was born in Hazelton, Pennsylvania and christened Irina in the Greek Catholic Byzantine church. Music was in little Irina's soul and nurtured by opera recordings she heard at home. One day she saw a picture of Galli-Curci as Carmen and dreamed of being a gypsy, singing and dancing. When she was five she left home to join the gypsies who passed through her town in their caravans. A neighbor spotted her and took her home.

Music manifested itself with her first solo in a tiny voice in the first grade Christmas pageant and really flowered in ninth grade in her role as princess in the annual operetta. Her voice was discovered, and from then on she was always the princess and won many singing contests.

Irene's father envisioned her as bookkeeper in his business but Irene wanted music and discovered Juilliard. With her mother's strong support, her father consented and Irene went to New York, was accepted at Juilliard and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in music education, majoring in voice. While studying she sang in the Riverside Church choir and in her last year worked with Robert Shaw who was forming his chorale. He invited Irene to join her in studying conducting techniques with Leon Barzin. Irene's growing reputation as a choral conductor opened opportunities to her and she signed a year's contract as music supervisor at a school in Ravena, New York. Her study with Shaw was invaluable in training a chorus of 30 senior girls.

People in Ravena liked her singing so much that Irene decided to return to New York City, to take a chance now, not to wait, get old, and then wonder if she could have made it. Her first and wonderful job was at WOR Music for Worship a chorus of twelve singers working with soloists from the Metropolitan Opera under the great conductor Alfred Wallenstein. Then came the chance to sing and travel in The New Opera Company where she had a small part and sang in the chorus of La Vie Parisienne whose choreographer was Leonide Massine. That ended; World War II had started and the company couldn't get to Chicago because all trains were taken for troop movement.

Next, the chorus of the Theatre Guild's Sing Out Sweet Land where Irene met Alfred Drake and Burl Ives who became a close friend. They traveled to Chicago and Washington, D.C. She used to go to the D.C. airport to watch planes take off. Burl Ives suggested she try out for the USO; she did, was accepted, and ended up rehearsing Pardon Me on VJ Day. There were ten dancers and four singers, the "biggest girlie show" headed for Japan. There were no adequate accommodations there, so they performed for six months in Guam, Saipan, Iwo Jima, Tinian, Oahu, then through the Panama Canal to New York City.

After that, Irene toured the U.S., Mexico City, and Cuba as a soloist with Holiday on Ice for three years. Then, with the D'Lovlies, a girls quartet, she played clubs in Canada and on the vaudeville circuit in New York and Pennsylvania. Irene worked with Harry Belafonte doing TV and recordings for the Library of Congress. She sang with the Schola Cantorum with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Jerome Hines wrote a religious opera, and there was Irene, in the chorus, singing on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. She also sang opera arias in Bianchi & Marguerita's restaurant on West Fourth Street. Fridays, she sang alto at the Brotherhood Synagogue and on Sundays, she sang soprano at St. John's in the Village, the old church. For several years, Irene sang music therapy programs in some of the city's hospitals.

Two highlights in Irene's career were singing the leading roles in two Benjamin Britten operas. When she appeared in Albert Herring the New York Herald Tribune wrote that "Irene Sherrock gave a vivid performance as the domineering Lady Billows." The New York Times review of her performance in The Turn of the Screw stated that "Irene Sherrock as Miss Jessel was perhaps the outstanding member of the cast."

In 1977, Irene settled down and took a job with the Rockefeller Family Fund. She continued to sing in temples and at St. John's in the Village, she now concentrated on serious travel for pleasure and learning. Besides the usual vacation destinations, Irene explored Africa from Senegal to Capetown, up to a safari in Tanzania and Kenya, through Ethiopia and Egypt. Irene also took a month-long tour of India and Nepal, and visited Thailand and Kuala Lumpur. She found Tibet and Bhutan most unusual, as well as places in Indonesia, Fiji, Tonga, and Western Samoa.

After St. John's in the Village was rebuilt after the fire, Irene sang the first solo in the first service. And now? She's still here, this child of music, at the door of our church, greeting people. For all of us who have the good grace to be welcomed by Irene, the charm, and the gypsy twinkle, and the humor still shine forth–she's a true princess.