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Music
Route 322 closure and detour on May 17 for Rowan University commencement ceremonies | more
Professor Emeritus Joseph Robinette earns Tony Award nomination | more Preparing tomorrow's young professionals: Rowan to offer Career Explorers Camp for students in seventh-ninth grades | more New Jersey Senate president to speak at Rowan commencement | more Rowan 'rocks the boat' with production of Guys & Dolls | more Christopher Thomas - Director of Choral Activities
Email: thomasc@rowan.edu
Christopher B. Thomas is Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. At Rowan, he conducts the Rowan University Concert Choir, Statesmen men's chorus and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Choral Conducting and Choral Literature. Under his direction, the choir has performed Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, Vaughan Williams' Hodie, and are preparing an international tour to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic where they will present a program of Eastern European music and African American spirituals arranged by Hall Johnson. Prior to his appointment at Rowan, Dr. Thomas served as Interim Director of Choral Activities at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Dr. Thomas has taught middle and secondary vocal music in the Illinois public schools, elementary music in Arizona and has held numerous community and church choir positions. As a baritone soloist, he has performed with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Chamber Artists and the St. Andrew's Bach Society. Recent solo engagements have included Bach's B Minor Mass, Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Haydn's Creation. Thomas received the DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Arizona (UA) where he studied with Bruce Chamberlain and Elizabeth Schauer. At UA, Thomas was the graduate teaching assistant for The Arizona Choir, the University of Arizona's premier graduate choral ensemble where he prepared the choir for the Western Division ACDA conference's culminating performance of Arthur Honneger's Le Roi David. His work with the Arizona Choir earned him the University of Arizona School of Music and College of Fine Arts Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year award. His dissertation research, "Antonine Reicha's Missa pro defunctis and the Nineteenth-Century Concert Requiem" culminated with the fourth-ever performance of Reicha's choral-orchestral requiem setting. Dr. Thomas received the Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Arizona and the Bachelor of Music Education from Millikin University where he studied conducting with Brad Holmes. He is married to Jessica who is Minister of Music at Tabernacle Methodist Church in Cape May and a Vocal Teacher for Camden County Technical and Vocational School in Sicklerville. |
