Tom is a member of the music faculty at Cleveland State University, where he was recently awarded the prestigious Golden Apple Award in Teaching, and Notre Dame College. He has previously held faculty positions at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music, the College of Wooster, Lorain County Community College, and Western Reserve Academy. He is a woodwind coach for the Cleveland Institute of Music Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony.
As a Music Therapist, he has worked at the Prentiss Autism Center and has over ten years experience working with the urban youth population of Cleveland who have severe emotional disturbances. In addition to crisis intervention, re-education and sanctuary therapeutic models, he is also trained in applied behavioral analysis from the Cleveland Clinic and completed the Child Trauma Academy with Dr. Bruce Perry. Since 2015 Tom has been chosen by ORMACO (Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach) to facilitate annual grant-funded therapeutic music workshops with at-risk youth.
The saxophonist has performed in Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, and the Dominican Republic. He has premiered solo and chamber works of local composers Nicholas Underhill, Geoffrey Peterson, Thomas Janson, John HC Thompson, Andrew Rindfleisch, Michael Leese, Buck McDaniel, Kurtis Jeffers, Jack Ballard, Darren Allen, Dr. Greg D'Alessio, Jeffrey Quick, Stephen Stanziano, and Colin Holter, and he premiered chamber works at the 2018 North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference. Tom is currently working on several new premieres: Six Global Vignettes by Jack Ballard, Mind, Body, and Soul by Matthew Saunders, Three Vignettes (concerto for saxophone and full orchestra) by Dave Morgan, Today's Headlines (for saxophone quartet) by Steven Stanziano, and The Hydra Tree (for reed quintet) by Christopher Auerbach-Brown. He has recorded on Palmyra Music, Infinite Number of Sounds, Parousia Digital, for Ludwig Masters Publications, with Noel Quintana's Latin Crew, and with John Dober's CDL Trio. His performances include live broadcasts on WCLV Classical 104.9, 90.3 WCPN, WRUW-FM 91.1, WCR-FM 97.1, WJW FOX 8 News In the Morning, as he also has been featured on Ideastream, Cleveland Ovations, Innovations on WCLV, The Hazel Chapman Show, and Positively Cleveland. Tom performs locally as a member of Akron Symphonic Winds, Ekklésia Reed Quintet, Canton Comic Opera Company, Neo-Tessares Saxophone Quartet, Cleveland Winds, Night Owls, Powerhouse 5, NEO Dixie, Sarata & Lempner Duo, Trepanning Trio, MT Fraze, Pen & Axe, Hexapod, Freedom Jazz Collective, and is host of the experimental project Inquiries Into Sound.
Tom earned a Masters of Music degree at Kent State University where he was awarded the Walter Watson Jazz Award, Outstanding Soloist at Elmhurst Jazz Festival, and Winner of the Graduate Student Soloists Competition. He also earned a double Bachelors degree in Music Therapy and Music Performance (minors in piano and jazz emphasis) at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, a Diploma from the Armed Forces School of Music, and is a U.S. Army Veteran with various awards and decorations.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."