1. Tobias Picker was born on July 18,1954 and is an American composer, pianist, and conductor, noted for his orchestral works Old and Lost Rivers, Keys To The City, and The Encantadas, as well as his operas Emmeline, Fantastic Mr Fox, An American Tragedy and Lili Elbe, among many other works.
Three years later, Tobias Picker was taken into the preparatory division of the Juilliard School of Music for instruction in piano and theory.
At the age of eighteen, Tobias Picker was an improvising pianist for Martha Graham at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, and, that same year, he enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Charles Wuorinen.
In 1976, at the age of twenty-two, Tobias Picker was commissioned to compose "Sextet No 3" by Speculum Musicae, which premiered at Alice Tully Hall.
In 1985, Tobias Picker was appointed the first composer-in-residence of the Houston Symphony where he introduced his most popular orchestral work, Old and Lost Rivers, as well as two symphonies and other concerted works.
In 1992, Tobias Picker was awarded the Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Music.
In 1993, Tobias Picker began composing his first opera, Emmeline, commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera, with a libretto by JD McClatchy; Emmeline premiered in 1996.
In 2010, Tobias Picker composed a ballet, Awakenings, for the Rambert Dance Company, inspired by the work of Oliver Sacks.
In 2012, Tobias Picker was elected to a lifetime membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Tobias Picker was appointed artistic director of Tulsa Opera from 2016 to 2022.
In 2011, Tobias Picker was featured in a Miller Theatre Composer Portrait Concert, featuring the Signal Ensemble, Sarah Rothenberg, and the Brentano String Quartet, who premiered his Piano Quintet "Live Oaks".
Tobias Picker composed the ballet, Awakenings, inspired by Awakenings by his long-time friend, Oliver Sacks, and commissioned by the Rambert Dance Company.
Directors most often associated with Tobias Picker's operas are Francesca Zambello, James Robinson, and Lee Blakeley, as well as librettists JD McClatchy and Gene Scheer.
Tobias Picker collaborated with Roald Dahl's biographer, Donald Sturrock, on Fantastic Mr Fox, and most recently Aryeh Lev Stollman on Awakenings, as well as poets Richard Howard and W S Merwin.
Tobias Picker has collaborated with pianists Jeremy Denk, Peter Serkin, Emanuel Ax, and Ursula Oppens, who has championed Picker's work since 1977, as well as violist Paul Neubauer, cellists Lynn Harrell and Paul Watkins, and flutist Carol Wincenc.
Tobias Picker has worked with William Burden, Gerald Finley, Elizabeth Futral, Susan Graham, Nathan Gunn, Lucia Lucas, Jennifer Larmore, Diana Soviero, and Dolora Zajick.
Tobias Picker has mentioned that there are "tourettic" elements in his music.
Tobias Picker appeared in a BBC Horizon television documentary, titled Mad But Glad, exploring a link between Tourette's syndrome and creativity, and has been involved in mentoring programs for children with Tourette's.
Tobias Picker has tics which he says disappear when he is composing, playing the piano, or conducting.