Genre Easy listening Albums Credo SATB | Record label Choral Tracks LLC | |
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Books Way Over in Beulah lan’: Understanding and Performing the Negro Spirituals, Feel the Spirit Similar Anton Armstrong, Moses Hogan, St Olaf Choir, William L Dawson, Jester Hairston | ||
André Jerome Thomas (born August 15, 1952) is an American composer and conductor. He currently serves as a professor of music at Florida State University and the artistic director for the Tallahassee Community Chorus. In addition to his conducting and composition credits, he is a published author, Way Over in Beulah Lan': Understanding and Performing the Negro Spiritual and numerous journal articles.
Contents
Early life
Thomas grew up in Wichita, Kansas with his two sisters and mother. Thomas credits his mother dedication to her family’s economic and spiritual well-being, cleaning buses for Continental Trailways and singing in church, for his own fascination for music.
However, Thomas explored not only choral music but instrumental music as well. During his elementary school years, André Thomas took piano lessons from various members of his church, though only sporadically. Even though Thomas received some outside musical training, for most of his early childhood, he was predominantly self-taught.
Upon entering junior high school Thomas decided to pursue piano formally. He began taking lessons at Wichita State University and by his eighth grade year he won the Federated Music Clubs Piano Competition. During this time, Thomas participated in the junior high school’s chorus and developed a dislike of spirituals and gospel music that he has since become known for composing. Thomas explains this feeling:
I must admit, I was not fond of these settings, even through high school. As a young black man, I really didn’t identify. This was not the black music that I knew and it certainly wasn’t the music that I experienced at my church! The text utilized dialect and it made me feel as if performing this music gave white people a chance to make fun of black people. I never really heard the message in the text; I only heard the way it sounded. We certainly weren’t allowed to speak like that in my home and it denoted ignorance in my mind...
While his feelings towards these settings may have continued through high school they did not stop him from being actively involved with music and composition. At sixteen, Thomas accepted the role of Minister of Music at Tabernacle Baptist Church. He began arranging music to meet the needs of his choir. However, his time as a music minister was not easy. Many of the choir members balked at taking instructions from such a young person. This created enough tension that he eventually asked his mother to leave the choir.
College and early professional
Thomas earned degrees from Friends University (B.M. 1973), Northwestern University (M.M. in Piano Performance 1976), and University of Illinois (D.M.A. 1983). During his time at Friends University, Thomas sang under the direction of Jester Hairston. Hairston noticed Thomas’s lack of enthusiasm for spirituals and gospel music and pulled Thomas aside to speak about it. Hairston explained how the “dialect was not a sign of inferiority but an accommodation for sounds that were not part of African speech”.
After finishing his bachelor's degree at Friends University in Wichita, KS, Thomas began teaching at Brooks Junior High School in the Wichita Public School System. Additionally he served as the Youth Music Minister at Canaan Baptist Church. Two years later, Thomas left to pursue his master's degree in Chicago. While studying at Northwestern University Thomas decided against a career as a concert pianist in favor of conducting and teaching because he did not enjoy the solitary nature of becoming a concert pianist. Following his degree at Northwestern, Thomas returned to Wichita Public School System to teach at Coleman Junior High School before pursuing his doctoral degree from the University of Illinois. At the University of Illinois Thomas received an opportunity to assist Harold Decker, then Director of Choral Activities at University of Illinois, and to direct the University Chorus as well as the University of Illinois Black Chorus.
Professional career
Thomas began his professional career at the University of Texas in Austin (1981-1984) while finishing his doctoral degree. He then began his long career at Florida State University. He currently serves as the Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Choral Education at Florida State University as well as the Owen F. Sellers Professor of Music.
In addition to his collegiate teaching career, Thomas conducts various choral organizations throughout the United States and internationally. He currently serves as the artistic director for the Tallahassee Community Chorus. His international conducting experiences include Australia, England, China, Estonia, Israel, New Zealand and many others. He has conducted about 40 All-State high school choirs and has twice conducted the World Youth Choir.
His influence ranges beyond conducting to author of various choral education and specialty fields and composer. He writes frequently about black composers and the struggle of becoming a black “classical” composer and performing ethnic music (spirituals and gospels) with integrity; and his choral compositions have been published by seven different publishing companies.
Organizations and Awards
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