Tom Cothran

Thomas Walter Cothran (1947–1987) was an American musicologist and composer, notable for his professional collaboration and personal relationship with American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein.

Early life and education Tom Cothran was born in San Antonio to parents Walter M. and Betty (Nogle) Cothran. Walter was at the time a business equipment salesman. The family remained in Texas for some years, then moved to Pasadena, California, where Tom graduated from Pasadena High School in 1965. Cothran attended Northwestern University for two years, then transferred to UC Berkeley where he studied music and became interested in linguistics. Never graduating, he found employment at San Francisco radio station KKHI (then an all-classical format), rising to program director. Cothran met Bernstein at a party in 1971 and quickly found common interests with the composer/conductor. Bernstein introduced Cothran to acquaintances and friends within the former's social and professional orbit. Multiple sources report that the two became lovers.

As assistant to Bernstein Cothran assisted and advised Bernstein in small ways during the period of development of the latter's Mass (1971) and was a frequent house guest in the Bernstein household.

Cothran continued as an associate of Bernstein's during the period of development of the latter's failed musical, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976), also studying piano informally under Harvard's Luise Vosgerchian. and Palm Springs for about two years, during which Cothran participated in the development of Bernstein's Songfest, the two reportedly reading poetry to each other and selecting the poems that make up the piece, including some dealing with homosexuality. They collaborated on a never-completed opera based on Nabokov's Lolita, Cothran to provide the libretto. Their intimate relationship ended in 1977 with Bernstein's return to his marriage under tragic circumstances. The two remained friends and confidants and exchanged letters. a star-studded benefit for a leading New York AIDS organization at Carnegie Hall in November, 1987.

In popular culture Actor and playwright Martin Julien's The Unanswered Question premiered at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in March, 2007, with Tom McCamus as Bernstein. The play dramatizes the composer's angst in choosing between Felicia (played by Chick Reid) and Tom (played by Graeme Somerville).

Cothran is played by Gideon Glick in Bradley Cooper's 2023 film Maestro. Glick, a gay actor, describes his sympathetic portrait of Cothran as possible with 2023's more "authentic and honest" perspective on mid-century gay culture.