Philip David Morehead | |
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Morehead circa 2006
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Born | 1942 Manhattan |
Occupation | Musician |
Children | James Morehead, Keren Morehead, Ian Morehead |
Parent(s) | Loy Claudon Morehead |
Philip David Morehead (born 1942) recently retired as Head of Music Staff of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center (formerly the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists). His previous positions at the Lyric Opera of Chicago have included Music Administrator and Chorus Master.
He was born in New York City in 1942, the son of writer Albert Hodges Morehead, and learned to play the piano at age 4. He attended Trinity School in New York City, The Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Swarthmore College where he majored in French, Harvard University where he majored in musicology and received an M.A., and the New England Conservatory of Music where he majored in piano performance and received an M.M. He then studied for two years in Paris and in Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger. He later married Patricia Noonan of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Prior to 1978, Morehead lived in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was the Musical Director of the New England Chamber Opera Group, where he conducted the American premieres of Busoni's Arlecchino and Handel's Imeneo, the world premiere of Paul Earls' The Death of King Phillip, in addition to other works including Stravinsky's Mavra and Menotti's The Medium. He was also the Musical Director of the Newton Chamber Orchestra and the Brookline Symphony Orchestra. He was the assistant conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the rehearsal pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and for seven years he was a member of the faculty of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. He has performed as a pianist and harpsichordist, and played continuo with the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and Leonard Bernstein.