Patrick Thomas (conductor) - Biography

Biography

Alan Patrick Thomas was born in Brisbane, and attended Eagle Junction State School in Clayfield. In August 1944, at age 12, he attended his first major evening orchestral concert, when Eugene Ormandy conducted at Brisbane City Hall in four concerts designed to boost the war effort. Thomas requested, and a few days later received, Ormandy’s autograph, and from then on set his sights on becoming a conductor. As a 14-year-old, he played third flute at the first Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) performance, on 26 March 1947, when the new 45-member ensemble under guest conductor Percy Code introduced Queenslanders to their own professional symphony orchestra.

In 1963, the ABC's acting federal director of music, Joseph Post, gave him a conducting audition and less than two years later Thomas became director of the ABC's Adelaide Singers. From there he had a brief stint with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra before returning to his home state.

In 1973 he became the QSO’s first – and to date only – homegrown chief conductor. He stayed in that post until 1977. He decided to increasingly offer 20th-century composers as a way of developing a broadened approach on the part of the audiences to diverse modern repertoire, plus a more responsive and capable facility from the orchestra. Patrick Thomas co-established a successful Modern Music Forum in Brisbane.

Regularly conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra including on the its international tours, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Thomas's glamorous concert engagements outside Queensland were in stark contrast to the harsh performance conditions which he and his 65-piece orchestra endured at home. Able to fill in at short notice when a scheduled conductor cancelled, Thomas became the ABC's Sydney-based conductor-in-residence. Thomas established an international reputation, especially in Europe where he was offered coveted return engagements by several leading ensembles. But his dedication to family and his home country meant that his career remained based in Australia. As the final director of the ABC Sinfonia, he became a casualty of the structural reforms of the mid-1980s that led eventually to the complete divestment of the orchestras from the ABC.

As a writer, his later work has included an autobiography, several hundred poems, a booklet of career anecdotes, a published reference text (Overture to Conducting), as well as articles and scripts for radio stations 2MBS FM and ABC Classic FM.