Anthony Tommasini was the chief classical music critic for The New York Times from 2000 to 2021. He wrote about orchestras, opera and diverse styles of contemporary music, and he reported regularly from major international festivals. He also covered musical theater and participated in Times Talks with Stephen Sondheim, Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury, and Patti LuPone.
Born in Brooklyn, he grew up in Long Island, graduated from Yale University, and later earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University. He taught music at Emerson College in Boston and gave workshops in nonfiction writing at Wesleyan University and Brandeis University. He is the author of three books, including a biography of the composer and critic Virgil Thomson, and is completing a fourth, a collection of essays on great composers to be published by Penguin Press.
As a pianist, he recorded two Northeastern Records compact discs of music by Thomson, both funded through grants he was awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Before joining The Times, he covered music and theater for The Boston Globe. Over the years as a journalist he has also written about dance, jazz, rap, books and AIDS. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Dr. Benjamin McCommon, a psychiatrist.
Portrait by Tony Cenicola for the NYT
