Joel Thome (born in Detroit, Michigan) is the conductor and artistic director of
Orchestra of Our Time. A
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
recipient, Thome has been acclaimed internationally as an accomplished conductor and composer of classical and contemporary orchestral music, as well as a strikingly effective conductor of
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
and other music/theater works. His conducting credits include many prominent and international orchestras. He has worked with such noted artists as pianists
Vladimir Feltsman and
Lorin Hollander
Lorin Hollander (born July 19, 1944) is an American classical concert pianist. He has performed with virtually all of the major symphony orchestras in the United States and many around the world. A ''New York Times'' critic called him in 1964 "the ...
, violinist
Jaime Laredo
Jaime Laredo (born June 7, 1941) is a violinist and Conducting, conductor. He was the conductor and Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and he began his musical career when he was five years old.
Laredo was born in Cochabamba, Boliv ...
,
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
singers
Florence Quivar
Florence Quivar (born March 3, 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American operatic mezzo-soprano who is considered to be "one of the most prominent singers of her generation." She has variously been described as having a "rich, earthy soun ...
and
Roberta Alexander. His modern opera performances include the Weill/Brecht
Threepenny Opera with the
Opera Company of Boston
The Opera Company of Boston was an American opera company located in Boston, Massachusetts, that was active from the late 1950s through the 1980s. The company was founded by American conductor Sarah Caldwell in 1958 under the name Boston Opera Gr ...
and the Thomson/Stein
Four Saints in Three Acts
''Four Saints in Three Acts'' is an opera composed in 1928 by Virgil Thomson, setting a libretto written in 1927 by Gertrude Stein. It contains about 20 saints and is in at least four acts. It was groundbreaking in form, content, and for its all-b ...
at
Carnegie Hall.
For thirteen years, Thome led the
National Symphonic Orchestra of Mexico in concerts of classical and contemporary works. He has also conducted the
Israel Chamber Orchestra
Israel Chamber Orchestra (abbreviation ICO, Hebrewהתזמורת הקאמרית הישראלית (''Hatizmoret hakamerit'') is an Israeli orchestra based in Tel Aviv. Primary funding comes from the Israel Ministry of Education and the Tel Aviv-Yafo ...
,
Group L'Itineraire in Paris,
Brooklyn Philharmonic
There have been several organisations referred to as the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The most recent one was the now-defunct Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, an American orchestra based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in existence fr ...
, the Orquestra Municipal of Caracas and the
Milwaukee Symphony
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The orchestra performs primarily at the Bradley Symphony Center in Allen-Bradley Hall. The orchestra also serves as the orchestra for Florentine ...
, and has been a regular guest conductor of the Monday Evening Concert Series in Los Angeles.
A composer and conductor of many disciplines, Thome conceived and conducted
Zappa's Universe at the Ritz Theatre in New York City, and provided critically acclaimed arrangements of
Frank Zappa's wide ranging repertoire for symphony orchestra, rock musicians, classical soloists and a capella singers. Thome's Polygram/Verve recording of Zappa's Universe received a
Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental in 1994. Thome conducted a sold-out program of the Music of Frank Zappa and
Edgard Varèse at the Great Performers Series in
Avery Fisher Hall
David Geffen Hall is a concert hall in New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic.
The facility, desi ...
at Lincoln Center, and conducted the Seattle and Oregon Symphony Orchestras in An Evening of the Music of
Frank Zappa.
Thome as served as a member of the board of directors of the
Bronx Museum of the Arts
The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by ...
, Mexican Institute for Culture in New York, Erick Hawkins Foundation for Modern Dance, and on the board of directors of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function. His collaborations with visual artists include
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and hi ...
, Françoise Gilot,
David Hockney
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...
and
Red Grooms
Red Grooms (born Charles Rogers Grooms on June 7, 1937) is an American multimedia artist best known for his colorful pop art, pop-art constructions depicting frenetic scenes of modern urban life. Grooms was given the nickname "Red" by Dominic ...
. He has also collaborated with film-maker Robert Fulton, and choreographer,
Anna Sokolow
Anna Sokolow (February 9, 1910, Hartford, Connecticut – March 29, 2000, Manhattan, New York City) was an American dancer and choreographer known for the social justice focus and theatricality of her work, and for her support of the developm ...
. Thome has held a number of prestigious positions in academe and for some years was Head of Music at
Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently Professor of Composition at
SUNY Purchase where he has taught, among others, electronic composer and musician
Dan Deacon
Daniel Deacon (born August 28, 1981) is an American composer and electronic musician based in Baltimore, Maryland.
Deacon is renowned for his live shows, where large-scale audience participation and interaction is often a major element of the pe ...
.
Compositions
Thome major compositions include Savitri Traveller of the Worlds (Pulitzer Prize nomination), the score for Picasso's play Catch Desire by the Tail; Book of Beginnings V for Benny Reitveldt (bassist for Miles Davis and Carlos Santana), and Time Spans, the first work to use actual radio signals from space.
Recordings (as conductor)
His Recordings include the Thomson/Stein opera Four Saints in Three Acts (Nonesuch) which received Stereo Review's Recording of the Month and Recording of the Year, and a critically acclaimed recording of
Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire for Vox) and Satyavan Dream Twilight for World Sound.
External links
Art of the States: Joel Thomeconducting ''Fire Fragile Flight'' (1973) by
Lucia Dlugoszewski
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thome, Joel
American male composers
21st-century American composers
American male conductors (music)
1939 births
Living people
21st-century American conductors (music)
21st-century American male musicians