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Theodore Thomas

Esens in East Friesland, Germany, 1835 - 1905, Chicago

BiographyThomas, Theodore (11 Oct. 1835-4 Jan. 1905), musical conductor, was born Christian Friedrich Theodor Thomas in Esens in East Friesland, Germany, the son of Johann August Thomas, the Stadtmusicus (town musician) of Esens, and Sophia (maiden name unknown). Theodore (as he was always called) showed early aptitude for the violin and, with some assistance from his father, taught himself to play. His elementary schooling ended in 1845, when the family emigrated to New York City. There Theodore soon began playing with his father in small theater orchestras to help earn a living. By the age of fourteen he was independent enough to make a lengthy tour of the southern United States as a solo violinist, setting up his own concerts as he went. Returning to New York City in 1850, he rapidly established himself as a leading violinist in orchestras and chamber ensembles. At the age of nineteen he was elected to the New York Philharmonic Society (founded in 1842 and then performing only four concerts per season). He learned the rudiments of conducting in the only way possible at that time, by observing conductors and musicians in action from his position as a violinist in various orchestras. He made his debut as conductor of an opera about 1859. He then hired an orchestra, rehearsed it, and conducted his first orchestra concert on 13 May 1862. He married Minna Rhodes in 1864; they had five children.

Thomas initiated and conducted a series of matinee concerts in New York City in 1863 and an evening series in 1864. These were followed by extensive seasons of summer concerts, primarily of light classics, in various entertainment halls and gardens in the city. The orchestra that Thomas assembled to perform in these series soon evolved into an organization known as the Theodore Thomas Orchestra. Thomas rigorously drilled this group (varying in size over the years from thirty to sixty players) into the most precise musical ensemble ever known in the United States up to that time. Partly in order to employ his musicians full time and partly out of his own strong desire to bring good music to the masses, in the autumn of 1869 Thomas began a series of tours that, over the next two decades, ultimately took the orchestra over the length and breadth of the United States, frequently performing in towns and cities that had never before heard a symphony orchestra. Thomas was a shrewd program builder who often played light music interspersed with more serious fare, gradually adding symphonies, for example, when he felt that a given audience had progressed sufficiently to appreciate and enjoy them. The Thomas orchestra was disbanded in 1888 after changes in the economics of touring made it no longer profitable. By then, Thomas had created a new public for classical music in the United States.

Though conducting literally thousands of concerts with his own orchestra over more than twenty years, Thomas also found time to create or be involved with numerous other musical organizations. He was the chief organizer and conductor of the Cincinnati May Music Festival, beginning in 1873, a festival specializing in large-scale works for chorus and orchestra. He was the director of music for the international exhibition in Philadelphia, which celebrated the centennial of the United States in 1876. This costly venture, which included the commissioning of a Centennial March from Richard Wagner, involved him heavily in debts that he eventually paid in full. In 1878-1880 he served as director of the Cincinnati College of Music, but he soon resigned over artistic and administrative differences with the school's board of directors. In 1886-1887 he conducted and toured extensively with the American (later the National) Opera Company, an organization established by Jeannette Meyers Thurber to present opera in the English language. Again financial problems and Thomas's own inadequacies as artistic director led to the early demise of this project. However, Thomas's most lengthy commitment, beyond his own orchestra, during the middle period of his life was to the New York Philharmonic, which he directed in 1877-1878 and from 1879 to 1891. During his tenure the artistic standards of the orchestra greatly improved, as did its finances. Many of the players from his own orchestra became members of the Philharmonic as well. However, by 1891 the Philharmonic still performed only six public rehearsals and six concerts per season.

In 1889 Thomas first discussed with an old friend, Charles Norman Fay, a Chicago utilities executive, the possibility of establishing a permanent orchestra in Chicago. By December 1890 Fay had persuaded fifty wealthy Chicagoans to guarantee $1,000 each to the orchestra annually for its first three years. A charter was drawn up, and Thomas signed a contract under which he was given full authority to select the players and train them to "the highest standard of artistic excellence," to make all programs and choose all soloists, and to conduct twenty-eight weeks of concerts per season. Thomas chose about one-third of his musicians from the Chicago area; the remainder came from New York or Europe. The first official concert of the new ensemble took place on 17 October 1891. Aside from continuing his concerts with the Cincinnati May Music Festival and serving as musical director of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Thomas devoted the remainder of his life to the development of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Following the death of his first wife in 1889, he married Rose Fay, a sister of Charles Fay, in 1890, and they settled permanently in Chicago. They did not have children. In 1903 Thomas and Charles Fay spearheaded a campaign to raise funds to build a permanent concert hall for the orchestra. Orchestra Hall was completed in late 1904, and Thomas conducted the inaugural concert there on 14 December and regular concerts on the 16th and 17th. Less than three weeks later he died in Chicago.

Thomas's most obvious legacy is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which from its beginnings was usually regarded as one of the nation's best. With both that ensemble and his earlier Theodore Thomas Orchestra, he set rigorously high standards for the performance of symphonic music in the United States. However, he is also revered for the significance of his tireless, lifelong efforts to create a nationwide audience for classical music in the United States.

Bibliography
The principal collection of manuscript and printed material on Thomas, including his surviving correspondence, his personal library of books and musical scores, and a nearly complete collection of his concert programs, is in the Newberry Library in Chicago. Thomas's brief autobiography is printed, with related materials, in Theodore Thomas, A Musical Autobiography, ed. George P. Upton (2 vols., 1905). The most modern and thorough biography is Ezra Schabas, Theodore Thomas: America's Conductor and Builder of Orchestras, 1835-1905 (1989). An earlier biography by an author who knew Thomas personally is Charles Edward Russell, The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas (1927). See also Rose Fay Thomas, Memoirs of Theodore Thomas (1911). An obituary is in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 5 Jan. 1905.

John E. Little

Citation:
John E. Little. "Thomas, Theodore";
http://www.anb.org/articles/18/18-01137.html;
American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.
Access Date: Tue Jul 30 2013 15:10:13 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

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