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The American pianist and conductor Thomas Wise graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in his native Michigan. He received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School in New York, where he was a scholarship pupil of György Sándor. A Fulbright Fellowship to Germany brought him to study with Aloys Kontarsky in Cologne, where he finished his studies with the Konzertexamen degree. Further piano studies then followed with Peter Feuchtwanger in London. He attended the conducting masterclass of Finnish master-teacher Jorma Panula.

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Thomas’ extensive experience as a performer brought him to the Royal Albert Hall in London, New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, Munich’s Herkulessaal as well as many other important venues including the music festivals of Cologne, Dresden, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Ludwigsburg and Montepulciano.

Thomas appears as a recording artist for the Arte Nova/BMG, Genuin, Hänssler Classic, and Capriccio labels playing Beethoven, Debussy, Duparc, Ibert, Piazzola, Ravel, and Schubert. The WDR, BR, MDR, SRF, and DeutschlandRadio radio stations have invited Thomas to record works of Albeniz, Chopin, Ives, Reto Stadelmann, and Kurt Weill.

Highlights of his wide-ranging piano repertoire include the Goldberg-Variations of Bach, the 32 Beethoven Sonatas, the major works of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Ravel in addition to 35 piano concertos. He has performed 20th century compositions by Barber, Bartók, Berio, Boulez, Copland, Milhaud, Stockhausen, and Stravinsky, and has given the world premieres of pieces by Jherek Bischoff, Bojidar Dimov, Hanns Koch, Antonio Fernandez Ros, Steffen Schleiermacher, and first recordings of works by Joseph Lauber, Manfred Trojahn and Charles Ives.

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Thomas’ performed opera repertoire includes over 30 conducted works, reaching from John Blow to George Benjamin, encompassing major works of Adés, Beethoven, Händel, Hindemith, Massenet, Mozart, Puccini, Tschaikovsky, Verdi, and many more. After positions at the Hamburg State Opera and Bonn Opera he is presently conductor and director of the music department at Theater Basel. He has conducted the Beethovenorchester Bonn, the WDR Rundfunkorchester, the Norwegian National Opera, the Basel Sinfonietta, as well as the Sinfonieorchester Basel.

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Opera repertoire

Ades – Powder Her Face

Beethoven – Fidelio

Bellini – La Sonnambula

Benatzky – Im Weißen Rössl

Berg – Lulu, Wozzeck

Berio – La Vera Storia

Bernstein – Candide

Bizet – Carmen

Bizet – Les Pecheurs des Perles

Bock – Fiddler on the Roof

Britten – A Midsummernight´s Dream

Delibes – Lakmé

Donizetti – Don Pasquale, L´Elisir d´Amore, Lucia di Lammermoor

Dvorak – Rusalka

Gluck – Orfée et Euridice

Gounod – Faust

Händel – Alcina, Belshazzar, Jephtha

Händel – Rinaldo

Hartmann – Simplicius Simplicissimus

Henze – We come to the River

Hindemith – Cardillac, Trilogie* (Mord, Hoffnung der Frauen, Sancta Susanna,Das Nusch-Nuschi)

Humperdinck – Hänsel und Gretel

J. Strauss – Die Fledermaus

Janacek – Katja Kabanová

Kagel – Der Mündliche Verrat

Lortzing – Der Wildschütz

Massenet – Thaiis

Milhaud – À propos de bottes, Un peu d’exercice

Mozart – Cosí fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni, Idomeneo

La Finta Giardiniera, Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte

Poulenc – Dialogues des Carmelites

Prokofiev – Die Liebe zu den Drei Orangen

Puccini – La Bohème, Madame Butterfly, Tosca

Puccini – Manon Lescaut, Turandot

Rossini – Il Barbiere di Seviglia*, L´Italiana in Algeri

R. Strauss – Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Salome

Schleiermacher – Kokain

Schreker – Der Ferne Klang

Strawinsky – The Rake´s Progress

Tschaikowsky – Evgeny Onegin, Pique Dame

Verdi – Giovanna d´Arco

Verdi- Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlo, La Forza del

Destino, Otello, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Jerusalem

Vivaldi: Orlando

Wagner – Lohengrin, Parsifal,Tannhäuser

Wagner – Tristan und Isolde

Weber – Der Freischütz

Weill – Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny

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