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George Thomson has been Music Director of the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra since 2001. He also conducts the Marin Symphony in their annual Family Concert. George enjoys a multi-faceted career as a conductor, instrumentalist, and educator. From Fall of 1994 until 2007 he worked as a conductor for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. As Associate Conductor, he conducted a subscription program as well as several rehearsals each season in the absence of Music Director Kent Nagano. He directed the Symphony's "Under Construction" series of new music reading events, and was also the Music Director of the Symphony's award-winning Music Education Program, which brings the orchestra into the Berkeley Public Schools in a series of innovative performances each season. Raised in Sunnyvale, California, George attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he received A.B. and M.A. degrees in Music, studying conducting with Michael Senturia and Philip Brett. He was for several years Music Director of the San Francisco-based new music ensemble EARPLAY, and has appeared as a guest conductor with many new music ensembles, including the Empyrean Ensemble, Composers Inc., and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. With the latter ensemble he conducted two works by Andrew Imbrie in a recording released in 2002 on the Albany Records label. Formerly Music Director of the Prometheus Symphony, a community orchestra based in Oakland, George has also appeared as a guest conductor with the Marin Symphony, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra. In addition to contemporary music, George is active in the fields of historical performance and music education. He has enjoyed long associations with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the American Bach Soloists; from 1996 to 2005 he was Principal Violist of the Carmel Bach Festival, where he was a member of the Festival String Quartet. As an educator he directs the Virtuoso Program at San Domenico School in San Anselmo, a unique opportunity for high school students to pursue intensive orchestral and chamber music training in addition to a rigorous college preparatory curriculum. The San Domenico Orchestra da Camera, under Mr. Thomson's direction, won a "Grand Champion" award at the 2005 National Orchestra Festival sponsored by the American String Teachers' Association with the National School Orchestra Association. The Virtuoso Program was featured in the February 2004 issue of Strings Magazine, and was featured on the nationally-broadcast radio program "From the Top" in February of 2006. In May 2004 Mr. Thomson made his conducting debut with Berkeley Opera in a production of Handel's "Acis and Galatea" at the Julia Morgan Theater; he returns to conduct Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio" in March of 2007. In January 2007 he directed the Berkeley Symphony in a program of Stravinsky, Sibelius and Berkeley composer Olly Wilson; in April 2007 he will make his debut with the Santa Rosa Symphony. Click here to see George Thomson’s web site Nora Thomas - Associate Conductor Nora Thomas, the Associate Conductor for the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, is also the Youth Program Coordinator for the Marin Symphony. She also advises our newest addition to the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Orchestra Fellowship Program, designed to give outstanding orchestra musicians leadership experience and also participate in our Chamber Music Residency Program. Currently she teaches elementary music in the Mill Valley School District for students in Kindergarten through the second grade, with the addition of a third and fourth grade chorus at five schools. She also serves as an accompanist for the district choral ensembles. Originally from Lake Tahoe, Nora moved to Marin after finishing a Master's degree in Instrumental Conducting from Chico State. At Chico, Nora was a graduate assistant of the Chico State Bands. In that post, she conducted three different ensembles, taught piano class to music majors and taught students privately. Nora also was integral in the formation of the Children's Choir of Chico, a group that now boasts over 200 members. Nora finished her training at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 2004 and is an OAKE (Organization of American Kodaly Educators) endorsed instructor. She studied with American Master teachers Lamar Robertson and Ann Eisen, and has taken high level conducting and solfege courses from Hungarian master teacher Eva Vendrei. During the summer, Nora teaches Kodaly Institute courses at the University of Central Missouri. Her students are music teachers involved in master’s degree programs seeking Kodaly Certification. Primarily a single reed specialist, Nora has played regularly
with the North State Symphony and the Juneau Symphony where she
was Principal Clarinet. Marin
Symphony Youth Programs Phone:
415.479.8100 |
