Shively was also a seven-time All-Star and a two-time MVP in his division. Despite these facts, Shively was buried in an unmarked grave located in what was traditionally the slave section of Bloomington’s Rose Hill Cemetery when he died ?in 1962.
Nearly 53 years later, with a new headstone dedication and an induction to the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame on the horizon, Shively is also finding redemption in music.
Performing arts organization Journey through Sound’s inaugural concert will be tonight at the Monroe County History Center. The concert is titled “Unsung American Heroes: A Musical Celebration of George Shively and his Musical Peers” in honor of Shively, and the program consists of music by African and African-American ?composers.
Deanna Said, founder and artistic director of Journey through Sound, said she recognized the unfortunate circumstances of Shively’s burial in the lives of underappreciated African-American composers who lived at the same time.
“It’s a really wonderful thing that his story has come to light and is being recognized, and in my mind there are lots of musicians who had similar stories who lived at a certain time,” ?she said.
Said first became involved with reviving Shively’s story through Alain Barker, the director of entrepreneurship and career development for the Jacobs School of Music.
Barker was responsible for introducing her to Sally Gaskill, one of the people responsible for Shively’s new-found recognition.
Gaskill, the director of IU’s Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, said she first heard of Shively when she helped plan a concert in Rose Hill Cemetery with her chamber choir, ?Voces Novae.
The choir planned to sing pieces related to the people buried in the cemetery such as Civil War veterans, Alfred Kinsey and Hoagy Carmichael, however as they planned for the event they discovered Shively’s ?unmarked grave.
The group decided to raise money to build a memorial for the former baseball player, Gaskill said.
“I got involved originally by trying to right a wrong, to correct the indignity of that individual being buried in an unmarked grave,” ?she said.
Gaskill said she quickly realized former sportswriter Bob Hammel was also doing research on Shively in order to nominate him for the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame, and the two combined their efforts.
With more than $14,000 raised for the memorial, Gaskill said plans are in motion to build memorials for Shively as well as 10 other people in his lot, including his father, sister and two nephews.
A dedication service for Shively’s memorial is scheduled for Sunday, opening day for Major League ?Baseball.
Shively will also be inducted to the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame in July as part of the 2015 class of inductees.
Said, a graduate student in the music school, began to flesh out the idea she had for a new performing arts organization combined with Shively’s story in an independent study led by Barker last fall.
She said the first ideas for a few concerts connected to different social causes that came to her while she still lived in San Francisco last spring.
The idea expanded from concerts solely related to social causes to concerts that have a narrative thread running through the performance, she said.
“I felt there was a need to help people see how accessible classical music really is,” Said said. “How much it does pertain to our lives, and how it can connect to different causes we believe in or things that inspire us? So I wanted to just find a way to put the music in ?context.”
The context for tonight’s performance is the lack of recognition for African-American accomplishments and reconciliation.
The program features both composers from Shively’s time period as well as two living composers from San Francisco and ?South Africa.
The final piece, a composition for quartet by South African composer Kevin Volans, deals especially with reconciliation, as Said said the composer has described it as his “naïve attempt at reconciliation with ?apartheid.”
Throughout the night, Said is also set to be sharing the stories of the composers’ lives or the stories behind the creation of the pieces to tie the theme of the event ?together.
Said also said she thinks the recognition Shively is getting now is a sign of ?progress.
“The fact that people are taking notice now just shows that we’ve come a long way, and it’s important to recognize those people who made important contributions,” she said.
