BALTIMORE – Thomas Dolby is set to unleash his sweeping new orchestral work, “Requiem For The 80s” in 2027 with the U.S. premiere to be held in Baltimore.
The North American premiere is set for September 26th at The Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The first performance will take place in London, where Dolby was born.
Baltimore holds a very special place in Dolby’s heart as he has called the city home for more than a decade. Dolby is department head at Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Conservatory’s Music for New Media program, which launched in the fall semester of 2018.
More dates in the United Kingdom and North America will be announced in coming months.
Blending the anthems of the MTV era with the decade’s defining cultural events and Dolby’s own story, “Requiem For The 80s” will feature Dolby and his band performing with a 55-piece live orchestra, electronics and visuals via a giant LED screen.
Click here to check out a preview of the show:
“’Requiem For The 80s’ is my musical memoir of a decade that, in reality, was nothing like the airbrushed stereotype of big hair, big snares and shoulder pads,” Dolby said. “If you lived through that decade, it was a darker time, so with a dash of humor, I’ve written a symphony that holds a mirror to the real ’80s, weaving its defining moments with music from the iconic artists of the era, including The Smiths, Joy Division, Eurythmics, The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Talking Heads and many others.”
In addition to the orchestra, Dolby will perform with his own band featuring arranger/singer Andrew Lipke (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and Mat Hector (Iggy Pop, Grace Jones, Thom Yorke) on drums. Trailblazing Brazilian conductor Alexandra Arrieche (Night of the Proms) will be on the podium. Steadily touring throughout this year in both the UK and the US, Dolby gave fans a sneak preview of this new show in intimate venues.
Perhaps best known for blinding us with science, Thomas Dolby has always blurred the lines between composition and invention. Thomas Morgan Robertson (born 14 October 1958), known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher. He came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including “She Blinded Me with Science” (1982) and “Hyperactive!” (1984). He has also worked as a producer and as a session musician on hits by Def Leppard, Whodini, The Thompson Twins and Belinda Carlisle. Thomas Dolby is associated with the new wave movement of the early 1980s, a form of pop music incorporating electronic instruments, but his work covers a wide range of musical styles and moods distinct from the high-energy pop sound of his few, better-known commercial successes.
In the 1990s, Thomas Dolby founded Beatnik, a Silicon Valley software company which developed the polyphonic ringtone engine that played back the Nokia tune. Its technology was embedded in more than three billion cell phones and devices made by Nokia, Microsoft (MSFT) and Motorola (MSI). He was also the music director for TED Conferences for twelve years. On the faculty at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University since 2014, he leads Peabody’s Music for New Media program, which enrolled its first students in the fall of 2018. He is now an endowed Professor of Music.
In his No. 1 Amazon (AMZN) bestselling memoir “The Speed of Sound,” Thomas Dolby catalogued his journey from busker on the streets of London and Paris to in-demand session keyboardist with artists such as Foreigner and Stevie Wonder, producer for Joni Mitchell and George Clinton, to sharing the stage with David Bowie at Live Aid and Roger Waters at The Wall in Berlin. Beyond music, he founded a Silicon Valley tech company, co-invented the Nokia polyphonic ringtone, helped transform TED into a global phenomenon, and earned acclaim as a filmmaker and novelist.
To purchase tickets and for more information, please visit www.thomasdolby.com/tour
About Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
For over a century, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has been recognized as one of America’s leading orchestras and one of Maryland’s most significant cultural institutions. The orchestra is internationally renowned and locally admired for its innovation, performances, recordings, and educational outreach initiatives, including OrchKids.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performs annually for more than 275,000 people throughout the State of Maryland. Since 1982, the BSO has performed at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, and since 2005, with the opening of The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, the BSO became the nation’s first orchestra performing its full season of classical and pops concerts in two metropolitan areas.
In July 2022, the BSO made history with the announcement that Jonathon Heyward would succeed Music Director Laureate and OrchKids Founder Marin Alsop as the Orchestra’s next Music Director. Maestro Heyward began his inaugural season in September 2023. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a proud member of the League of American Orchestras. More information about the BSO can be found at BSOmusic.org.