Thomson, Virgil 1896-1989
US composer and critic

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he was educated at Harvard and Paris. He set some of the writings of Gertrude Stein to music, and wrote operas, Four Saints in Three Acts (1934), first performed by a black cast, and The Mother of Us All (1947), besides symphonies, ballets, choral, chamber and film music. His work was notable for its simplicity of style. He was music critic of the New York Herald Tribune from 1940 to 1954. His autobiography Virgil Thomson by Virgil Thomson was published in 1966 and his Selected Letters were published shortly before his death.