Thomas W. Morris

Thomas W. Morris Biography

Appointed artistic director of the 75-year-old Ojai Music Festival starting with the 2004 Festival, Mr. Morris was responsible for artistic planning, and each year appointed a music director with whom he collaborated on shaping the festival’s programming. The wide diversity of music directors with whom Mr. Morris worked in Ojai included Kent Nagano, Oliver Knussen, Robert Spano, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, David Robertson, eighth blackbird, George Benjamin, Dawn Upshaw, Leif Ove Andsnes. Mark Morris, Jeremy Denk, Steven Schick, Peter Sellars, Vijay Iyer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Barbara Hannigan. Under his tenure, audiences increased, and the scope of the festival expanded in Ojai and geographically to include innovative partnerships with Cal Performances in Berkeley and with the Aldeburgh Festival in England. He retired from Ojai with the 2019 Festival.

In May 2011, a new innovative orchestra festival, Spring for Music, held annually each May, debuted at Carnegie Hall to rapturous critical and audience acclaim. Mr. Morris, along with Mary Lou Falcone, of M. L. Falcone Public Relations, and David Foster, of Opus 3 Artists, were founding directors of the project. Mr. Morris served as artistic director. Spring for Music consisted of a week of concerts by North American orchestras and chamber orchestras, with all ticket prices at $25. The sole criteria for selection of participating orchestras was creativity in programming. Over its four years, Spring for Music presented 25 different orchestras.

During his tenure as executive director of The Cleveland orchestra from 1987 to 2004, the artistic success of The Cleveland Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnányi partnership was recognized throughout the world and the inaugural seasons of Franz Welser-Möst’s tenure as Music Director were launched to great enthusiasm and acclaim. Over seventeen years, Mr. Morris’s leadership helped set many important milestones for the Orchestra, including thirteen tours to Europe and four to East Asia; an unprecedented recording discography on the London/Decca, Telarc International, and Teldec labels; the Orchestra’s 75 th anniversary celebration, including an important compact disc set of rare archival recordings; the renovation, expansion, and restoration of Cleveland’s signature concert venue – Severance Hall; the seamless transition of music directors in 2002; and the renovation, upgrading and transformation of the Blossom Music Center into a state-of-the-art summer concert venue.

Mr. Morris came to Cleveland from the Boston Symphony Orchestra where he served in a number of capacities from 1969 to 1985. In 1978 he was named to the newly created position of general manager, assuming overall executive responsibility for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Symphony Hall, and Tanglewood.

Since his retirement from The Cleveland Orchestra, he has pursued active consulting activities, and he has served as a consultant to over fifty organizations including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall. Mr. Morris has frequently served frequently on the faculty of various programs for the League of American Orchestra’s Leadership Academy and led its Institutional Vision Seminar for twelve years. He has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Curtis Institute of Music and also as chair of its Board of Overseers. Since 2008, he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Since retiring from Ojai in 2019, his major project has been writing this book, Always the Music: How a Lifelong Passion Framed a Future for Orchestras, about musical institutions and the state of the musical world, based on what he learned from important mentors and collaborations in his life.

An accomplished percussionist, Mr. Morris has performed frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops, and currently performs in the Blossom Festival Band and Orchestra.

A native of Rochester, New York, Mr. Morris studied percussion at the Eastman School of Music and holds a B.A. degree from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce.

October 2024