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The American baritone, Thomas F. Pyle, graduated from Tusculum College in Greensville, Tennessee.
Thomas Pyle was most closely identified with the Robert Shaw Chorale. Other groups for which he sang as chorister and recruited singers included the American Opera Society, Amor Artis, Bach Aria Group, Camerata Singers, Caramoor Festival, Musica Sacra, National Chorale, Schola Cantorum, Clarion Concerts, Esterhazy Orchestra, Festival Chorus and Musica Aeterna. He joined the Robert Shaw Chorale in 1946 and began to help Robert Shaw audition singers almost immediately. He gave solo recitals - his Town Hall debut in 1950 was very well received - and he sang frequently solo parts in oratorio and opera in concert performances.
Thomas Pyle was more than a chorister in another sense: He was the contractor who usually rounds up the choral groups to be used by the organizations named above. As such, he knew the life of a professional chorister in New York better than anyone else. As a regular contractor he was asked by an orchestra or chorus conductor to find him a certain number of singers of various specifications, say, eight sopranos, seven altos, eight tenors and six basses. Four of the sopranos may have to have high, light voices. They all have to be available on certain dates for rehearsals and performances. Sometimes these were last-minute requests. Hugh Ross,conductor of the Schola Cantorum, was out of town when President Kennedy was assassinated and it was decided to have the New York Philharmonic Orchestra give Gustav Mahler's ‘Resurection’ Symphony on C.B.S.TV the following Sunday night. So he called, asking Pyle to assemble a chorus by the time he would return for a choral rehearsal. He auditioned an average of 200 singers a year.
In 1954, Thomas Pyle married Alice Parker, a composer, arranger, conductor, teacher and clinician. They had five children. She often accompanied her husband in solo recitals, as well as composing music for him. He died of a heart attack Thursday at his office, 711 West End Avenue. He was 58 years old and lived at 801 West End Avenue. Some 400 of his friends came together in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine to sing Johannes Brahms' A German Requiem conducted by Robert Shaw at a memorial service for him. He was survived by his wife; two sons, three daughters, his mother, a brother, and two sisters. |
