ABBA

He is a composer, orchestrator, arranger, pianist and teacher who was a pianist by the time he was just ten years old. He began composing when he was fifteen and took studies with Nadia Boulanger when he was a teenager. When he was 16 he attended the Juilliard School of Music and became the first to be awarded a doctorate there.

Since his first libretto and music written for The Trysting Place at Juilliard, many of his compositions have concentrated on operatic music and in 1972 his The Seagull became the work that he is possibly identified with. Others of his 22 operas to date include Before Breakfast, Black Widow, Calvary, Frau Margot, The Goose Girl, The Hotel Casablanca, La Divina, Maria Elena, Signor Deluso and Three Sisters.

His other works for orchestra, soloists and chamber ensembles known from the late 1960s include Invocation, Serenade for Violin and Chamber Orchestra, three concertos, five sonatas, a quartet for flute and strings, works for piano, clarinet and violin.

He has composer literally hundreds of songs, over 400 by the time he was eighteen, and written many vocal arrangements for choirs and solo voice.

In 1980 he accepted the position of Artistic Director of the Atlantic Opera and remained there until relocating to California.

Although writing 22 operas he has also worked on more than 100 film orchestrations with his own Topaz Productions which he established after moving to Los Angeles in 1984. His work in the movies can be heard on many film soundtracks that include American Beauty, Erin Brokovitch, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Finding Nemo, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Green Mile, The Horse Whisperer, Legends of the Fall, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Little Mermaid, Little Shop of Horrors, Magnolia, The Mask of Zorro, Meet Joe Black, Oscar and Lucinda, The Pagemaster, Pay It Forward, The Pelican Brief, Primary Colors, Road to Perdition, The Salton Sea, Scent of a Woman and The Shawshank Redemption and Sommersby to name just a few.

Returning to New York in 2003 he has since returned to his career in concert and operatic productions.

His ties with the Juilliard School remained when he became a teacher of composition there along with also teaching at Cincinnati University-Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.

Thomas Hampson recordings

Adeste Fidelis (John Francis Wade)

Teldec 9031-73135 (CD: Christmas with Thomas Hampson)

Arranger – Thomas Pasatieri

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Conductor – Hugo Wolff

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