The music of David Evan Thomas has been praised for its eloquence, power and craft. Critics have noted Thomas's loving ties to tradition, made evident in clear forms, smart instrumental writing and skillful orchestration. Audiences have responded to the music's warmth, lyricism and sense of play.
Born in Rochester, New York in 1958, David Evan Thomas grew up as the fourth of five children in a musical family, the son of flutist John Thomas. David attended Penfield High School and received his early musical training in the Preparatory Department of the Eastman School of Music, graduating with Honors in Trumpet in 1976. During this time he received important encouragement as a composer from David Russell Williams and Richard Alan Strawser. As an undergraduate at Northwestern University, he studied trumpet, composition and conducting and was active at Alice Millar Chapel under Grigg Fountain's direction. Returning to Eastman for a master's degree, he was awarded the Director's Fellowship, then taught throughout the 1980s at Montana State University-Billings. Thomas moved to Minnesota in 1989 and served as Dominick Argento's assistant at the University of Minnesota, where he taught composition and orchestration, and received the Ph.D. in 1996.
Thomas's teachers have included composers Dominick Argento, Samuel Adler, Robert Morris and Alan Stout, and trumpeter Vincent Cichowicz. He received further training at the Aspen Festival and at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (as an Associate of David Diamond). A perpetual keyboard student, he has followed early instruction from Jared Bogardus and Emily Vanderpoole with adult studies with Irina Elkina and (currently) Stephanie Wendt.
Thomas is the recipient of a Citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a McKnight Foundation fellowship, the Möller-A.G.O. Award in Choral Composition, and High Honors from Waging Peace Through Singing. He has received commissions from the Minnesota Orchestra, the Jerome Foundation, The Schubert Club, the American Composers Forum, and the American Guild of Organists. Three times in recent years he has been a resident artist at Wyoming's Ucross Foundation.
David Evan Thomas's varied catalogue includes music for orchestra and wind ensemble, two dozen chamber works, keyboard pieces large and small, and an opera. Vocal music is particularly prominent, with eleven song cycles-on subjects ranging from medieval women troubadours to the baseball writings of Donald Hall-and over thirty choral works. His friendship with organists James and Marilyn Biery has resulted in concert music for organ solo and duet (available through MorningStar) and three volumes of service music (available through Augsburg Fortress). Thomas's music is also published by ECS, Falls House, Fatrock Ink, Jeanné and Yelton-Rhodes, and recorded on CRI and Ten Thousand Lakes. Thomas's music been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Westminster Cathedral Choir of London, the trio of Gil Shaham, Truls Mørk and Yefim Bronfman, The Rose Ensemble, the Minneapolis and Rosalyra String Quartets, and many beloved solo performers, including Awet Andemicael, Karen Clift, Carol Eikum, Margo Garrett, Maria Jette, Vern Sutton, Sonja Thompson, Shannon Wettstein and Burt Hara.
From 2003-2005, Thomas was a Faith Partners composer-in-residence with Westminster Presbyterian Church (Minneapolis) and the Cathedral of Saint Paul through the American Composers Forum. He has also served in that capacity with Saint Paul Academy, The Rose Ensemble, and from 1997-2005, The Schubert Club. David Evan Thomas is a B.M.I. affiliate. He lives in Minneapolis.
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