Thomas Schippers

Charming, brilliant with a magnetic intensity, Tom Schippers was born in Portage, Michigan to an upper middle class family. His father owned Schippers Appliance in Kalamazoo and recognizing his musical ability, enrolled Tom into a piano class by age four. Excelling in school, he graduated high school at thirteen, attending both The Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, where he expressed an interest in conducting. Schippers made his conducting debut at the New York Opera at twenty-one and in 1955 began a long stint at The Metropolitan Opera, considered to be the most prestigious position within his rarefied career field. He ventured in Broadway on two productions in the hit 1950 operatic drama, "The Consul" (269 performances at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre) and "The Saint of Bleecker Street" (92 performances at The Broadway Theatre), beginning in late 1954. Homosexual, Schippers maintained lengthy relationships with composer/director/lyricist Gian Carlo Menotti (whom he'd met during "The Consul") and Leonard Bernstein. Schippers made limited TV appearances during the late 1950s on "What's My Line?" (then considered relatively erudite entertainment; as a contestant referred to as "Mr. X") and "The Ed Sullivan Show." During the 1960s and 70s he toured extensively, becoming a regular conductor with the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and made recordings with them as well, but in 1970 he finally took a full time orchestral position with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, succeeding his predecessor at the Metropolitan Opera, Max Rudolf. After making several recordings with them and building the orchestra's international reputation. He never actively pursued a career in Hollywood, remaining devoted to recording largely operatic works which have occasionally found their way on screen. Despite his sexuality, Schippers married Elaine Lane "Nonie" Phipps (1939-1973), an heiress to the Grace shipping fortune and daughter of the noted American polo player Michael Grace Phipps in 1965. Sadly, she died of cancer in 1973 at just 34 years old. A heavy smoker, Schippers died of lung cancer himself at only 47 in 1977.