My Secret Mentor

Anthony Tommasini

During my many years as an arts reporter and critic, I looked to Anthony Tommasini’s honest and approachable writing for the The New York Times as a model.

Because I had a degree in music and continued to practice music as an avocation even as I transitioned into writing about it, Tommasini was a particularly apt choice for me. A pianist with degrees in music from Yale and Boston universities, Tommasini was a protégé of Virgil Thomson, the famous American composer who also was acclaimed as the longtime music critic for the old New York Herald Tribune. So Tommasini acted as a kind of link for me, my connection to the passing tradition of musicians as music writers.

The key to Tommasini’s successful style? He’s no snob.

While too many people who write about classical music succumb to the temptation to prove, over and over again, how much more they know than the reader, Tommasini has never approached the job that way. He writes with a deep affection for the music, an abiding respect for musicians and a kind sympathy for his readers. Rather than judgmental, his reviews are modest, accessible and readable. Never snarky. Always helpful.

A simple concert review for the Times is a perfect case in point. While writing about a performance by high school students, Tommasini never demeans. Without writing down to the students or to his readers — he never claims it was the greatest performance ever! — he finds a way to report on the event fairly while happily encouraging the students’ efforts. There is a modesty and sympathy to his writing that every critic could learn from.

Who is a writer whose style you admire? Or whom you aspire to be in the future? It could be someone working today — like sport commentator Steven A. Smith. Or it could be a famous person from the past — like Bob Costas at the height of his career in the 1990s. It could be someone who does political commentary, like Tucker Carlson or Maureen Dowd. 

If not a person, it could also be a publication whose style you admire, maybe one you with you could work for. In the old days, every young reporter wanted to write one day for The New York Times. In the '70s and '80s, every music writer wanted to write for Rolling Stone magazine. In politics, every young writer saw himself or herself writing for The Nation or National Review. And, of course, every aspiring fashion writer wanted to work at Vogue. 

So pick an approach — person or publication — and write 400 words about why you recommend them or it.