Tamara Brooks

Who was Tamara Brooks?

Tamara Brooks was an American choral conductor.

Brooks studied at the Juilliard School of Music, where she received degrees in piano and in conducting. She went on to have an extremely varied carried career, of which choral conducting was merely a part.

As a conductor, Brooks conducted concerts in many countries throughout the world. Her positions included principal guest conductor of the Istanbul Symphony, conductor of the Cyprus Broadcast Orchestra, and guest conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg. She also prepared choruses for such conductors as Abbado, Frühbeck de Burgos, Giulini, Leinsdorf, Mehta, Muti, Ormandy, Rostropovich, Rozhdestvensky, Tennstedt, and Tilson-Thomas.

Brooks was a champion of contemporary music, commissioning and/or performing works by composers such as Adams, Cage, Caltabiano, Cogan, Druckman, Escot, Golijov, Kim, Liang, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Navok, Persichetti, Schuller, Sessions, Sur, Takemitsu, and Tippett.

Prior to her arrival in Boston, Brooks was the Music Director of the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia for eleven years. With this ensemble she made a Grammy-nominated recording of choral works of Vincent Persichetti, who was a mentor and close personal friend.