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, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

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 History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

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 Vladimir Oskarovich Feltsman (, ''Vladimir Oskarovič Feltsman'' (born 8 January 1952) is a Russian-American classical pianist descent particularly noted for his devotion to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Frédéric Chopin. Backgr ...

and Lorin Hollander, violinist

Jaime Laredo Jaime Laredo (born June 7, 1941) is an American violinist and Conducting, conductor. He was the conductor and music director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and began his musical career when he was five years old. Laredo was born in Cochabamb ...

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

singers Florence Quivar and

Roberta Alexander Roberta Alexander (born March 3, 1949) is an American operatic soprano. She began her career as a lyric soprano in 1975 and spent the next three decades performing principal roles with opera houses internationally. Particularly celebrated for her ...

. 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 conducting, conductor Sarah Caldwell in 1958 under the name Bo ...

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 al ...

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

. 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 f ...

, the Orquestra Municipal of Caracas and the Milwaukee Symphony, 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 Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

'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 Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French and American composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; h ...

at the Great Performers Series in

Avery Fisher Hall David Geffen Hall is a concert hall at Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic. The facility, designed by Max Abramovitz, was o ...

at Lincoln Center, and conducted the Seattle and Oregon Symphony Orchestras in An Evening of the Music of

. 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 "Sandy" Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobile (sculpture), mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, hi ...

, Françoise Gilot,

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...

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 constructions depicting frenetic scenes of modern urban life. Grooms was given the nickname "Red" by Dominic Falcone ( ...

. He has also collaborated with film-maker Robert Fulton, and choreographer,

Anna Sokolow Anna Sokolow (February 9, 1910 – March 29, 2000) was an American dancer and choreographer. Sokolow's work is known for its social justice focus and theatricality. Throughout her career, Sokolow supported the development of modern dance arou ...

. Thome has held a number of prestigious positions in academe and for some years was Head of Music at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

. He is currently Professor of Composition at

SUNY Purchase The State University of New York at Purchase, commonly referred to as Purchase College or SUNY Purchase, is a Public college, public Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. Established in 1967 by G ...

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, Baltimore, Maryland. Deacon is renowned for his live shows, where large-scale audience participation and interaction is often a major elemen ...

Compositions

Thome major compositions include Savitri Traveller of the Worlds, 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 Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-century classical music, ...

's Pierrot Lunaire for Vox and Satyavan Dream Twilight for World Sound.

External links

* conducting ''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