Thomas Nee, of Encinitas, Calif, who conducted the former Minneapolis Civic Orchestra from 1954 to 1967, died July 7 in Encinitas. He was 87. Nee introduced contemporary orchestral music and the classics to Twin Cities audiences, and he strove to help young composers.
Nee conducted the St. Paul Civic Orchestra from 1948 to 1951 and was the assistant conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (now the Minnesota Orchestra) from 1959 to 1960.
He and Minneapolis composer Eric Stokes ran the "Here" series of concerts at the Walker Art Center in the mid-1960s, and he cofounded the Center Opera Company in Minneapolis, now the Minnesota Opera in St. Paul.
Dominick Argento, a Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning opera composer, said Nee was the "main champion of contemporary music" when he lived in the Twin Cities.
"In the first couple decades of my career in the Twin Cities, he was probably the biggest influence on my career," Argento said. "He was committed to giving any Minnesota composer a chance."
Around 1965, Nee commissioned Argento's symphony "The Mask of Night."
In the 1950s and 1960s, he was the music director of the First Unitarian Society in Minneapolis, where "he would introduce people to little-heard music," said Cynthia Stokes of Minneapolis, a retired flutist for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
His concerts at the Walker and other venues often were full of surprises, said Stokes, whose husband, composer Eric Stokes, and others including Nee, put on happenings in the 1960s.
A performance could include a motorcyclist roaring down the theater aisle, or a person carrying a bust of Beethoven with red-flashing lights for eyes.
"Those were grand days," Stokes said. "He was a very caring, generous individual with a wonderful sense of humor."
Nee, a French horn player, graduated from Albert Lea, Minn., High School in 1938 and from the University of Minnesota School of Music in 1943. During World War II, he served in the merchant marine.
In 1948, he earned a master's degree in music from Hamline University in St. Paul.
In 1967, he moved to Del Mar, Calif., to join the faculty of the University of California, San Diego, and to become the music director of the La Jolla Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 1998. From 1960 to 1992, he was the music director of the award-winning New Hampshire Music Festival.
He is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Mary Nee; two sons, Eric, of Palo Alto, Calif., and Andrew, of San Diego; a daughter, Margarat, of Encinitas; a sister, Martha Gates, of Minneapolis, and three grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in the fall at the University of California, San Diego.
