Donald Thulean

At the end of June 1999, Donald Thulean retired from the American Symphony Orchestra League in Washington, DC, where he was Vice President of Professional and Artistic Services.  He joined the League staff in 1983 after a long and active conducting career.  From 1962 to 1984, he was Music Director and Conductor of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra and currently holds the title of Conductor Emeritus.  From 1966 to 1970 he served as associate conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.  

Thulean graduated from the University of Washington in 1950, where he received a Master of Arts degree in 1952.  During the summers of 1956-61, he participated in the Aspen Music Festival, first as a student, then as faculty member, chorus master, and assistant dean.  From 1957 to 1962 he was dean of the School of Music at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, and in 1961 he became resident conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.  In 1963 he was selected for the American Conductors Program, a joint project of the Ford Foundation and the Peabody Conservatory.  Thulean has guest conducted in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, and Mexico.

Thulean moved to Seattle upon his retirement where he has become an active the board of the Seattle Symphony serving on the Executive, Artistic Advisory, and Education Committees.