George
Thomson
has enjoyed a
multi-faceted
career as a conductor, instrumentalist, and educator. 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, and the Palo Alto Chamber
Orchestra, among others.
George is an
accomplished performer on modern and period instruments.
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
was for 11 years the Music Director of 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, has won the "Grand Champion" award at the National
Orchestra
Festival sponsored by the American String Teachers' Association on
three occasions--in 2005, 2008, and 2010. 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.
George was Music
Director of the Marin
Symphony
Youth Orchestra from
2001 to 2010; he also conducted the
Marin Symphony in their
annual Family Concert. 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.
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 returned 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 made his debut with the Santa Rosa
Symphony. In August 2007 he made his conducting debut with Lamplighters
Music Theater, conducting ten performances of H.M.S.
Pinafore in Walnut Creek, Napa and San Francisco.
George served for two seasons as Interim Director of the Santa
Rosa Symphony's Young
People's Chamber Orchestra. In June 2010 he joined the faculty
of the Rocky Ridge Music Center
in
Estes Park, Colorado, conducting the Young Artists Seminar Orchestra
during the first half of their summer session. He is currently
Director
of Orchestras for Corvallis School District 509J in Corvallis, Oregon,
conducting the Middle
School
Level 3 and Level 4 ensembles as well as two
High School ensembles, Concertato and Camerata--winners of the 2012
OSAA State Championships for String Orchestra. He resides in
Salem, Oregon with his wife, musician and writer Michelle
Dulak Thomson, and two cats, Lili and Charlie.