Tamara Brooks

American choral conductor Tamara Brooks was born on 11 September 1941 and studied at the Juilliard School of Music.

Her conducting appointments included principal guest conductor of the Istanbul Symphony Orchestra, conductor of the Cyprus Broadcast Orchestra and guest conductor of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, and she also prepared choruses for various high profile guest conductors, and was music director and conductor for two music festivals in Cyprus, bringing together both Greek and Turkish musicians.

She championed the music of contemporary composers including John Adams, John Cage, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti, Witold Lutoslawski, Lior Navok, Gunther Schuller, Roger Sessions, Toru Takemitsu and Michael Tippett.

She was music director of the Mendelssohn Club of Philedelphia and later, director of choral activities at New England Conservatory in Boston.

Tamara Brooks died suddenly in Houston on 19 May 2012, aged seventy.