Ronald Thomas (born 1954) is an American cellist known for his work as a soloist and chamber musician. Thomas has made guest appearances with some of the world's finest orchestras including the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscripti ...

, the

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1880 by Joseph Otten as the St. Louis Choral Society, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is the second-oldest professional symphony or ...

, the

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, it bega ...

, the

Seattle Symphony Orchestra The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra also serves as the accompanying orchestra for the Seattle Opera. History Beginnings The orchestra ...

, the

Hong Kong Philharmonic The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (Cantonese: 香港管弦樂團), commonly abbreviated as HKPO or HKPhil (Cantonese: 港樂), is the largest symphony orchestra in Hong Kong. First established in 1947 as an amateur orchestra under the name Si ...

, the

Handel and Haydn Society The Handel and Haydn Society is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. Known colloquially as 'H+H', the organization has been in continual performance since its founding in 1815, the longest-serving suc ...

, the

Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston is a musician-led American orchestra based in Newton, Massachusetts. It is one of only four co-operative orchestras in the US. It had a long-time association with composer and conductor Gunther Schuller, with ...

of Boston, and the

Blossom Festival Orchestra The Blossom Festival is a summer music festival of orchestral music located at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The festival was originally created to provide a summer concert vehicle for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Blossom Mu ...

among others. He has played recitals in nearly every state including performances in the cities of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

, and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. Thomas has also performed throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

Biography

Thomas first studied cello with Mary Canberg before attending the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on ...

and the

Curtis Institute The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. H ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

where his principal teachers were Lorne Munroe and

David Soyer David Soyer (February 24, 1923February 25, 2010) was an American cellist. He was born in Philadelphia and began playing the piano at the age of nine. At 11, he started the cello. One of his first teachers was Diran Alexanian. Later on he studi ...

. He first drew recognition when he won the

Young Concert Artists International Auditions Young Concert Artists is a New York City-based non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting the careers of talented young classical musicians from all over the world. The competition, founded in 1961, allows artists from all over ...

in 1974 at the age of nineteen. Since then he has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras both in the United States and internationally. Ronald Thomas is currently the Principal Cellist of the St. Paul Chamber orchestra, a position he has held since 2005. Thomas is the former co-founder and artistic director of the Boston Chamber Music Society, where he spent 26 years performing and directing until 2009. He has also appeared with the

Seattle Chamber Music Society The Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS) is an American organization of musicians located in Seattle, Washington that is dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. Established in 1982, the presenting organization is currently in i ...

and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center both at

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assist ...

and on tour. Other chamber music appearances include the La Musica,

Music@Menlo Music@Menlo is an annual summer chamber music festival and institute in Atherton, California. The festival was founded in 2003 by cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han. American Public Media American Public Media (APM) is an American comp ...

, Sarasota Music Festival,

Music from Angel Fire Music from Angel Fire, (MFAF) is the first chamber music festival in New Mexico designed to serve the artistic needs of rural northern New Mexico communities. This touring summer chamber music festival currently produces 15 outstanding concerts in ...

, Music in the Mountains,

Portland Chamber Music Festival The Portland Chamber Music Festival is an annual chamber music festival located in Portland, Maine, founded in 1994 by Jennifer Elowitch (violinist) and Dena Levine (pianist). In 2018, following PCMF's 25th anniversary season, Elowitch (Founder and ...

, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival,

Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival Bravo! Vail is an annual classical music festival held in Vail, Colorado. Its current artistic director is Anne-Marie McDermott. Overview The six-week-long festival begins in late June and ends in early August. Programming consists of chamber mu ...

Festival dei Due Mondi The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conc ...

, Blossom Music Festival,

Chamber Music Northwest Chamber Music Northwest (CMNW) is an American non-profit organization in Portland, Oregon that is dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. The organization's main presentation is its annual five-week Summer Festival, that occurs ...

, Sarasota Music Festival, the

Norfolk Chamber Music Festival The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, hosted in Norfolk, Connecticut, is believed to be the oldest active summer music festival in North America. Set among the Litchfield Hills of the lower Berkshires, the Festival traces its roots to the Battel ...

, the

Dubrovnik Festival The Dubrovnik Summer Festival ( hr, Dubrovačke ljetne igre; is an annually-held summer festival instituted in 1950 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is held every year between 10 July and 25 August. On more than 70 open-air venues of Renaissance-Bar ...

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

Amsterdam Festival Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, and others.Carter Festival Invited Scholars
/ref> Thomas is the artistic director of Chestnut Hill Concerts of Madison, CT and was an original member of the Players in Residence committee and the Board of Overseers at Bargemusic in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Thomas is also a former member of Boston Musica Viva and the Aeolian Chamber Players. While a member of these two groups, Thomas premiered countless new works, including those by

Gunther Schuller Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...

, Michael Colgrass,

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Ellen Taaffe Zwilich ( ; born April 30, 1939) is an American composer, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her early works are marked by atonal exploration, but by the late 1980s, she had shifted to a postmodernist, ne ...

Donald Erb Donald Erb (January 17, 1927 – August 12, 2008) was an American composer best known for large orchestral works such as Concerto for Brass and Orchestra and ''Ritual Observances''. Early years Erb was born in Youngstown, Ohio, graduat ...

William Bolcom William Elden Bolcom (born May 26, 1938) is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Award, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. H ...

, and

William Thomas McKinley William Thomas McKinley (December 9, 1938 – February 3, 2015) was an American composer and jazz pianist born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania). He wrote more than 300 musical compositions in what he called a neo-tonal style, of which Margalit Fo ...

. Thomas is a former member of the faculties at M.I.T., Brown University, the

Boston Conservatory Boston Conservatory at Berklee (formerly The Boston Conservatory) is a private performing arts conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, music, and theater. Boston Conservatory was founde ...

and the

Peabody Conservatory of Music The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869), ...

in Baltimore where he spent nine years before resigning in 1997 in order to spend more time with his then new daughter, Caitlin, and the cello. Thomas is married to violist Cynthia Phelps and they live just outside New York City in Leonia, N.J., while Mr. Thomas maintains a secondary residence in St. Paul, MN. They have three daughters: Lili (by Thomas' marriage to

Mihae Lee Mihae Lee is an American pianist of South Korean birth. Born in Seoul, Lee won the Korean National Music Competition which led to her professional solo debut at the age of fourteen with the Korean National Orchestra. In 1976, she moved to the Uni ...

), Christina (by Phelps' marriage to baritone David Malis), and Caitlin.OFFSTAGE WITH: Cynthia Phelps; Playing the Tune and Calling It, Too - New York Times
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Ronald American classical cellists Living people 1954 births