Biography:

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Educated at the world-renowned music school Indiana University, trumpeter John Charles Thomas has lived and worked in and around New York City since the mid 1980's. Dr. Thomas has performed in the premieres of works in both Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and appeared in Europe, Asia, Canada and the U.S. as a soloist and chamber musician. He has played under many of the great conductors, including Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Mstislav Rostropovich. Originally from Springfield, Ohio, he is a member of and the Grammy Award winning Chestnut Brass Company, principal trumpet with the Ridgefield Symphony (Connecticut), associate principal trumpet of the Queens Symphony (NYC), and with the Modern Brass Quintet (NYC). Dr. Thomas has performed frequently with the New York Philharmonic, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and various Broadway shows. He has appeared with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, American Symphony, Solisti New York, Trier Bach Soloists (Germany), Vienna Symphony, Bermuda Philharmonic, San Jose and San Francisco Symphonies. His solo appearances have included performances of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, Haydn's Trumpet Concerto and Copland's Quiet City among others. Adept in popular and jazz music as well, he has appeared with Peter Cetera, Dave Brubeck, James Taylor, Natalie Merchant, Nancy Wilson, The Temptations, and featured as a jazz soloist with Manhattan Transfer.

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Dr. Thomas has performed on several classical, contemporary and popular music recordings. He has recorded many works of Handel, Bach and Buxtehude, including Handel's Messiah and Bach's Mass in B Minor on the historical "baroque" trumpet. Dr. Thomas' distinctive trumpet sound can be heard on several film soundtracks including S.W.A.T., Sphere, , Highway, and Titus (Julie Taymor's adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus). He was the trumpet soloist on the Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell television series, The Power of Myth, and has been heard on National Public Radio, The Today Show, and 60 Minutes.

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Dr. Thomas is currently teaching trumpet at Bard College. He was an Assistant Professor of Music at Ithaca College in 2009, and has also taught at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Marist College, Packer Collegiate Institute (Brooklyn, NY), the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts (Huntington, LI) and the Parsons School (NYC). He has presented master classes at the North Texas State University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Baylor University, Loyola University (New Orleans), SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Fredonia, Brevard College, South East Oklahoma State, and others. He has given educational programs for the Westchester Philharmonic, Ridgefield Symphony, Queens Symphony, 92nd Street Y, Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Princeton Symphony Orchestras.

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