Tobias Picker
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Tobias Picker (b. New York City, 1954), called “our finest composer for the lyric stage” by The Wall Street Journal, is a composer of numerous works in every genre, drawing performances by the world’s leading musicians, orchestras and opera houses. Picker began composing at the age of eight and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and Princeton University, where his principal teachers were Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt. He received his first commissions while still in his late teens and quickly became established as one of America's most sought after young composers.
By the age of thirty, Picker was the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Joseph H. Bearns Prize (Columbia University), a Charles Ives Scholarship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1992, he received the prestigious Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. From 1985–1990 Picker was the first composer-in-residence of the Houston Symphony. He has also served as composer-in-residence for such major international festivals as the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Pacific Music Festival.
The Metropolitan Opera commissioned Picker’s fourth opera An American Tragedy, based on the novel by Theodore Dreiser and adapted for film as the famed A Place in the Sun of 1951. The world premiere of the opera took place at the Metropolitan Opera on December 2, 2005 and featured Patricia Racette, Nathan Gunn, Susan Graham, and Dolora Zajick in principal roles. The production was directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by James Conlon.
The Santa Fe Opera gave the world premiere of Picker’s widely acclaimed first opera, Emmeline, which was subsequently broadcast nationally on public television’s Great Performances series. His operatic adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Opera, established Picker as a composer whose appeal crosses all boundaries of age. Picker’s third opera Thérèse Raquin was commissioned by a consortium of companies including The Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera, and Opéra de Montréal. The success of these first productions brought Picker a new commission from Opera Theatre Europe for a reduced version of Thérèse Raquin, now scheduled for a March 2006 premiere at the Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House ("Covent Garden"). Likewise, Fantastic Mr. Fox arrives in Europe in a chamber version commissioned by Opera East for premiere at the Cambridge Arts Theater (UK) during its 2006-2007 season.
Picker’s symphonic music, including the well-known tone poem Old and Lost Rivers, has been performed by major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, The Munich Philharmonic, the Zurich Tonhalle, and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. His piano concerto Keys to the City (written for the Centenary of the Brooklyn Bridge) is a perennial favorite, called “a vivid musical portrait of New York” by The New York Times and recorded on Chandos with his cello concerto and the orchestral work And Suddenly It’s Evening. Following this Chandos release, BBC Music Magazine proclaimed Picker’s recent music “one of the glories of the current musical scene.” The Encantadas (for narrator and orchestra) features texts drawn from Herman Melville’s poetic descriptions of the Galápagos Islands and was recorded on Virgin Classics by the Houston Symphony Orchestra with narration by Sir John Gielgud. Other key works include Tres sonetos de amor, settings of Neruda love poems in versions for baritone and orchestra and voice and piano, and The Blue Hula, a work for chamber ensemble. Picker’s complete catalogue includes three symphonies, four piano concerti and concerti for violin, viola, cello and oboe as well as numerous chamber works.
Chandos Records has also released the premiere recording of Thérèse Raquin. Additional recordings of the composer’s music are available on Sony Classics, Virgin, Nonesuch Records, Ondine, and First Edition, among others. Tobias Picker’s music is published exclusively by Schott Music Corporation.
Picker is diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome, has mentioned that there are "tourettic" elements to his music, and has been involved in mentoring programs for children with Tourette's. [1] [2]
Picker has been romantically partnered with neuroradiologist and novelist Aryeh Lev Stollman since 1980, and the two share a house in Dutchess County designed by architect Dennis Wedlick.
