Anthony Tommasini

Anthony Carl Tommasini (born 14 April 1948) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music.[1] The chief classical music critic for The New York Times since 2000, he is also a pianist. He has released two CDS and two books on the music of Virgil Thomson.

Anthony Tommasini
Born(1948-03-14)14 March 1948
Brooklyn, New York
Alma mater
Occupation
Notable credit(s)

Early life and education

Anthony Carl Tommasini was born in Brooklyn, New York on 14 April 1948.[1][2] He grew up in a family of five in Malverne on Long Island, New York.[3][4] Though his parents were not musically-inclined, Tommasini was interested in classical music from a young age.[5] Beginning piano lessons in his youth, at 16 years of age he won a piano competition at The Town Hall in Manhattan, performing a Mozart concerto.[6] From age 15 on, he regularly attended the Metropolitan Opera, with operas by Puccini being particular favorites.[4] Other impressionable performances included Joan Sutherland as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor; Birgit Nilsson as the title role of Puccini's Turandot; Renata Tebaldi as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème; and Leontyne Price as the title role of Verdi's Aida.[6] A graduate of Saint Paul's School in Garden City, New York,[7] Tommasini studied piano with Donald Currier at Yale University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (1970).[1] He subsequently earned both a Master of Music (1972) degree from the Yale School of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts (1982) from Boston University, during the latter of which he studied with the pianist Leonard Shure.[1] He won the 1998 Boston University School of Music Distinguished Alumni Award.[6]

Career

Tommasini taught music at Emerson College in Boston, and led writing workshops at Wesleyan University and Brandeis University. He was denied tenure at Emerson College, as the college eliminated his position. In response, Tommasini turned to music criticism.[8] He was a freelancer, and wrote for The Boston Globe for a decade, beginning in 1986.[6] Tommasini became a staff writer for The New York Times in 1996, and was promoted to chief classical music critic in 2000.[6] His mentors include Virgil Thomson, the composer who was also a critic for the New York Herald Tribune, and Richard Dyer, who was the Boston Globe's classical music critic for 33 years.[6] In November 2021, Tommasini announced his intention to step down from his Times post.[9]

Tommasini is the author of Virgil Thomson: Composer on the Aisle,[10] which received the 1998 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, and Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Works and the Best Recordings.[11][1] Also a pianist, Tommasini made two recordings of music by Virgil Thomson for Northeastern Records, Portraits and Self-Portraits and Mostly About Love: Songs and Vocal Works.[1] Both were funded through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.[1]

Tommasini lives on Central Park West in Manhattan in New York City with his husband, Ben McCommon.[12][6]

Selected publications
For other articles by Anthony Tommasini, see § External links.
Books
  • Tommasini, Anthony (1986). Virgil Thomson’s Musical Portraits. New York: Pendragon Press.[13][14]
  • —— (1997). Virgil Thomson: Composer on the Aisle. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.[15][16]
  • —— (2004). The New York Times Essential Library: Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Works and the Best Recordings. New York: Times Books.
  • —— (2018). The Indispensable Composers: A Personal Guide. New York: Penguin Press.[17][18][19]
Articles

References
  1. Ceriani, Davide (2016) [2013]. "Tommasini, Anthony". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2289585. Retrieved 3 December 2021. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  2. See Tommasini's full name, Anthony Carl Tommasini, in Tommasini 1984, p. 234
  3. Peterson, Tyler (4 October 2013). "NY Times' Anthony Tommasini, Director Tony Palmer Set for CCM's Richard Wagner Celebration this Month". BroadwayWorld.
  4. Seligson 2011, p. 22.
  5. Seligson 2011, pp. 22–24.
  6. Seligson 2011, p. 24.
  7. Tommasini 2018, p. 55.
  8. Seligson 2011, p. 26.
  9. "A Coda, and Many Bravos, for Anthony Tommasini". The New York Times Company. 15 November 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  10. Tommasini 1997.
  11. Tommasini 2004.
  12. Tommasini 2011.
  13. McCarthy, S. Margaret William (Spring 1988). "Reviewed Works: Virgil Thomson's Musical Portraits by Anthony Tommasini; Virgil Thomson: A Bio-Bibliography by Michael Meckna". American Music. 6 (1): 106–108. doi:10.2307/3448356. JSTOR 3448356.
  14. Meckna, Michael (1989). "Reviewed Work: Virgil Thomson's Musical Portraits by Anthony Tommasini". The Musical Quarterly. 73 (1): 144–146. JSTOR 741863.
  15. Dickinson, Peter (August 1999). "Reviewed Work: Virgil Thomson: Composer on the Aisle by Anthony Tommasini". Music & Letters. 80 (3). JSTOR 855054.
  16. Croan, Robert (5 October 1997). "'Virgil Thomson: Composer On The Aisle' by Anthony Tommasini". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on 5 December 2004. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  17. Lopate, Phillip (29 November 2018). "The Greatest Composers Ever". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  18. Croan, Robert (13 January 2019). "'Indispensable Composers': Anthony Tommasini's opinionated guide to classical composers". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  19. "Anthony Tommasini". Harvard Book Store. Retrieved 7 December 2021.

Sources
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