Director of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus

Thomas Nee, the artistic director of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus for 31 years, who built a small community ensemble into an orchestra of more than 100 musicians that regularly premiered works by contemporary composers, died July 7 at the Glenbrook Skilled Nursing facility in Carlsbad, Calif. He was 87.

Nee, a former professor in the music department at UC San Diego, died of complications from kidney disease, according to the school’s news office. He had been a resident of Encinitas.

He joined the music faculty of UC San Diego in 1967, one year after the department was created. Within months of joining the faculty, Nee was appointed conductor of the La Jolla Symphony. The university music department’s commitment to contemporary work and Nee’s personal interest in it led him to program regular concerts that mixed traditional and experimental music, a rarity among orchestras at that time.

During his years as conductor, the La Jolla Symphony premiered works by Henry Brant and Ernst Krenek.

“Tom transformed the symphony repertoire,” said Diane Salisbury, executive director of the La Jolla Symphony. “Thanks to him, we’ve tried to bridge two worlds, experimental and traditional.”

A small percentage of orchestra members have always been UC San Diego students. Friends said that Nee did his best teaching from the lectern, where he was demanding, nurturing and generous with his self-effacing humor.

During most of his years as music director in La Jolla, Nee spent summers conducting the New Hampshire Music Festival, a professional orchestra based in Center Harbor, N.H.

From 1960, when he joined the New Hampshire festival, until he retired from it in 1992, he mixed new works with the classical repertoire in concert programs.

Nee was born in Evanston, Ill., on Oct. 25, 1920. He graduated from the University of Minnesota and served in the merchant marine during World War II before he earned a master’s degree in music from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn.

He began his career in 1953 as music director of the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis and co-founded the Minnesota Opera in 1963. He was assistant conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra under music director Antal Dorati for one year starting in 1959.

When he retired from the La Jolla Symphony in 1998, the Thomas Nee Commission was established in his honor to commission a new work annually by a graduate of UC San Diego’s music composition program.

Nee is survived by his wife of 58 years, Mary, sons Eric of Palo Alto and Andrew of San Diego, daughter Margaret of Encinitas and three grandchildren.

Contributions in his name can be made to the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, Thomas Nee Commission, 9500 Gilman Drive, UCSD 0361, La Jolla, CA 92093-0361.

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mary.rourke@latimes.com