Tobias Picker
Artistic Advisor

Beginning with the 2007/08 season, Tobias Picker took up the position of Artistic Advisor to New York’s Dicapo Opera Theatre. Picker enjoyed a successful collaboration with Dicapo last season when the theatre premiered the chamber version of his opera Thérèse Raquin to critical acclaim. As Artistic Advisor to Dicapo Opera, Picker will provide direction on repertoire expansion and commissions in addition to overall artistic planning.

Tobias Picker (b. New York City, 1954), described by BBC Music Magazine as "displaying a distinctively soulful style that is one of the glories of the current musical scene," began composing at the age of eight. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and Princeton University. He began to receive important commissions and prestigious awards 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 Bearns Prize (Columbia University), a Charles Ives Scholarship, and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. In 1992, he received the prestigious Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. From 1985-90, Picker was the first Composer-in-Residence of the Houston Symphony. He has also served as Composer-in-Residence for major international festivals including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and the Pacific Music Festival.

Mr. Picker has received commissions and performances from Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Lorin Maazel and the Pittsburgh Symphony, Edo de Waart and the San Francisco Symphony, Christoph Eschenbach and the Houston Sympony, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Pinchas Zukerman and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Proms, David Robertson and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, James Levine and the Munich Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Zurich Tonhalle, Jan Latham-Konig and the Strasbourg Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Pacific Music Festival, the Kuhmo International Music Festival, Peter Serkin, Emmanuel Ax, Ursula Oppens, Paul Watkins, Young Uck Kim, Barbara Hendricks, as well as other leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists throughout the world. His catalogue consists of works in all genres including three symphonies, four operas, three piano concertos, concerti for violin,viola, cello and oboe, songs, and chamber music.

The Encantadas, composed in 1983, has been performed internationally in seven languages. Sir John Gielgud recorded it for Virgin Classics in 1989. Many important actors have performed the narration and Mr. Picker himself has performed it often. Numerous performances of The Encantadas in the 2003 season marked its twentieth anniversary as a classic of the modern symphonic repertory.

In 1996, the Santa Fe Opera gave the world premiere of Mr. Picker's first opera, Emmeline. The opera played to sold-out houses, standing ovations and international critical acclaim, and was nationally telecast on PBS's Great Performances. Emmeline's premiere at New York City Opera was hailed by The New York Times as one of the ten most significant musical events of 1998.

Since that time Picker has become recognized as one of America's foremost composers of opera. His fourth opera, An American Tragedy, based on the novel of the same name by Theodore Dreiser (later adapted for film as "A Place in the Sun"), was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, and premiered at the Met in the fall of 2005. The chamber version of his opera Thérèse Raquin had its world premiere in March of 2006 in London, at the Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and a second run at Dicapo Opera Theatre in February of 2007.

Tobias Picker's music is widely recorded. Most recently, Chandos Records released a disc including his Cello Concerto, Keys to the City, and And Suddenly It's Evening, as well as the premiere recording of his third opera, Thérèse Raquin. His music has also been recorded by Sony Classical, Virgin Classics, Nonesuch, Ondine, and First Edition, among others. Ursula Oppens is currently recording Picker's complete works for piano, due for release by Wergo in Spring 2008.

about Dicapo | current season | special events | Dicapo in the news | children's chorus | resident artist program | rental information | become a subscriber | ticket information | contact Dicapo | home

dicapo.com is a production of OperaWeb.com