Tobias Picker

Tobias Picker (born New York City, 1954) is an American composer. 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 had earned 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.

Tobias Picker’s music is published exclusively by Schott Music Corporation.

Instrumental music
Picker’s symphonic music, including the 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 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.”[citation needed] 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 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.

Operas

 * Emmeline: The Santa Fe Opera gave the world premiere of Picker’s first opera, which was subsequently broadcast nationally on public television’s Great Performances series. The premiere recording was released by Albany Records.
 * Fantastic Mr. Fox: His second opera was an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Opera.
 * Thérèse Raquin: Picker's third opera was commissioned by a consortium of companies including The Dallas Opera San Diego Opera, and the Opéra de Montréal. Picker then received a new commission from Opera Theatre Europe for a reduced-scale version of Thérèse Raquin, which was performed in March 2006 at the Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
 * An American Tragedy:, Based on the novel by Theodore Dreiser, with a libretto by Gene Scheer, Picker's fourth opera was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera . The world premiere took place 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.

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, Bridge and First Edition, among others.

Personal life
Picker is diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome, and has mentioned that there are "tourettic" elements to his music. He also appeared in a BBC Horizon television documentary, titled "Mad But Glad", about the link between Tourette's syndrome and creativity. He has been involved in mentoring programs for children with Tourette's.