Background
Schippers was born on March 9, 1930 in Portage, Michigan, United States, the son of Peter Schippers, a distributor of Westinghouse products, and Agnes Nanninga. Schippers was a keyboard prodigy.
(Taped in Rome in 1969 and led handsomely and with great s...)
Taped in Rome in 1969 and led handsomely and with great sensitivity by the lamented Thomas Schippers, this set is extraordinary. Both Pavarotti and Freni were in their daisy-fresh 30s at the time, and they sing with ease, commitment, and true love. Sesto Bruscantini is a sympathetic Marcello, while Nicolai Ghiuselev impresses as Colline. Even if you own another Bohème (or two), at this price, this one is a must. --Robert Levine
https://www.amazon.com/Puccini-Boh%C3%A8me-Pavarotti-Freni-Schippers/dp/B000000UOE?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B000000UOE
(This classic disc has been the prime recommendation for B...)
This classic disc has been the prime recommendation for Barber's short orchestral pieces since the early 1960s. Remastered onto CD for the first time, and with the addition of some other items conducted by Thomas Schippers, it sounds better than ever. All of Barber's music is blessed with the virtues of impeccable craftsmanship, tunefulness, and, above all, brevity. Although a Romantic by temperament, Barber had the gift of being able to fit a lot of emotional impact into a very small space. The famous Adagio for Strings and the Second Essay actually sound much bigger than they are, but they don't go on a second too long--which means you can play them again right away! You'll want to. --David Hurwitz
https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Barber-Thomas-Schippers/dp/B0000029V2?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0000029V2
Schippers was born on March 9, 1930 in Portage, Michigan, United States, the son of Peter Schippers, a distributor of Westinghouse products, and Agnes Nanninga. Schippers was a keyboard prodigy.
Thomas began piano studies at four, performed in public at six. An academic prodigy as well, he graduated from high school at thirteen. At fifteen he entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to study organ and graduated in 1947, completing the four-year course in two.
After one semester at Yale University, where he took philosophy courses and studied composition with Paul Hindemith, he returned to Philadelphia to study piano and composition with Olga Samaroff. At her suggestion, he audited a conducting class at the Tanglewood Music Center at Lenox, Massachussets, and at eighteen, he took second prize in a conducting competition held by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
By the age of eight Schippers performed regularly on a local radio station. He also sang in the choir of a local church, where he often practiced the organ so late into the evening that he spent the night there.
Although his father tried to dissuade him from pursuing a musical career, he took a job as organist at a church in Greenwich Village in New York City. A neophyte opera group, the Lemonade Opera, rehearsed at the church, and he became their coach and conductor. This led to a major career break.
When one of his singers auditioned for Gian Carlo Menotti's opera, The Consul, Schippers's piano accompaniment so impressed Menotti that the composer hired him as musical supervisor of his company. The Consul opened in Philadelphia on March 1, 1950. Two weeks later fate again intervened when the conductor fell ill and Schippers conducted the New York premiere. He then went to Italy to conduct Menotti's film score for The Medium (1951).
On December 24, 1951, he directed the NBC-TV world premiere of Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. After a brief tour of duty with the United States Army in Germany, he served as resident conductor of the New York City Opera from 1952 to 1955 and also appeared as guest conductor with the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the NBC Symphony. Later Schippers conducted the New York City Opera in the world premiere of Aaron Copland's The Tender Land (1954). He led the New York premiere of Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street (1954) and in 1955 made his debut at La Scala Opera in Milan with the same opera.
The year 1955 marked the beginning of his lengthy associations with the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. Of his Metropolitan debut on December 23, Howard Taubman of the New York Times wrote, "Schippers knows how to keep his forces together. He keeps things moving but is wise enough to give the singers a certain flexibility. "
In 1958, he and Menotti cofounded the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, a summer showcase of international talent. Schippers remained artistic director of the festival until 1976. In the summer of 1959 he shared the podium with Leonard Bernstein when the New York Philharmonic toured the Soviet Union, and in 1960 he became the first American conductor to open a Metropolitan Opera season.
Between 1961 and 1963, he guest conducted the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the La Scala Opera, where he led the world premiere of Manuel de Falla's Atlantida (1962), and made his debut at the Bayreuth (Germany) Festival (1963), conducting Wieland Wagner's production of Die Meistersinger. In 1964 he led the American premiere of Menotti's The Last Savage at the Metropolitan Opera.
Following the 1965-1966 season, he traveled with the Metropolitan Opera Company on its first European tour in fifty-six years. Schippers was chosen to open the 1966 season, and the new auditorium, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra. When Leonard Bernstein stepped down as conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1969, Schippers was considered his likely successor. The post went instead to Pierre Boulez, but in 1970 Schippers was named music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, replacing Max Rudolf. In 1972 he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Music at the College Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, where he taught conducting.
In 1975 he led the American premiere of Rossini's The Siege of Corinth, in which Beverly Sills made her Metropolitan Opera debut. From 1975 to 1976 he toured Europe and the Soviet Union, served as director of Special Projects for the RAI, Italy's radio and television network, and was affiliated with the Accademia Chigiana an international music school in Siena. In 1976 his artistic partnership with Menotti ended. Menotti said Schippers had become too expensive for the Spoleto Festival.
In 1977, Schippers was diagnosed with lung cancer and gave up his post as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony to become its conductor laureate. He was appointed music director of the Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra in Rome, but had to cancel his initial concerts there in October owing to his illness.
He died in New York City that December and left the bulk of his $5 million estate to the Cincinnati Symphony.
(Taped in Rome in 1969 and led handsomely and with great s...)
(This classic disc has been the prime recommendation for B...)
Schippers was an imposing presence on the podium: six foot three and handsome, with dark brown eyes, curly dark-gold hair, and a resonant voice. He memorized all his scores, including more than one hundred operatic works, and maintained an arduous daily work schedule.
Quotes from others about the person
A critic for the New Yorker said Schippers combined "taste and energy with the rare faculty of conveying musical ideas by means of gestures that is the indispensable talent of the born conductor. "
New York Times critic Olin Downes called him "a conductor of very exceptional gifts. "
On April 17, 1965, Schippers married Elaine ("Nonie") Phipps, the daughter of Michael Grace Phipps, director of the W. R. Grace steamship line. He and his wife divided their time between residences in Cincinnati and Manhattan, but in January 1973 Nonie Schippers died after a prolonged bout with cancer. They had no children.