MSO | The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Reeves (12) started piano at the age of 5, studying initially with Yuko Sekiya in Tokyo, then with Elizabeth Wolff and most recently with Ernest Barretta in New York. He started composing at the age of 7 by completing an unfinished melody by one of his favorite composers, Shostakovich. He studied composition first with Dr Vivian Fung, then Dr Manuel Sosa and most recently with Ira Taxin at the Juilliard School, where Thomas attends the pre-college division. He has over 40 works for piano, chamber ensembles and orchestra.

His first string quartet was premiered in a recital at Steinway Hall in New York in May 2004, and was given its second public performance on National Public Radio in April 2005 on the program NPR “From The Top”. His Violin Sonata was premiered at the Austrian Cultural Forum in June 2005 with his fellow student Pei Wen Liao playing violin.

His Clarinet Quintet was performed in March 2007 by the Biava Quartet with Derek Bermel at a concert of the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music. Also in March 2007 Thomas performed his Piano Concerto with the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Thomas was awarded an ASCAP Morton Gould Prize in 2005 for his “Sakura Variations” for piano and also in 2006 for his Violin Sonata and 2007 for his Woodwind Trio. He won the NYSSMA composition prize in 2006 for his Violin Sonata and in 2007 for his Viola Elegy. He also won the Thousand Islands Chopin Society Composition Prize for his “Sakura Variations” in 2006 and in 2007 for his “Chorale Fantasy” for piano. He was also received an honorable mention and prize from the Davidson Foundation in 2007 for his Piano Concerto.

Thomas is currently working on a six movement work for orchestra, children’s choir and violin choir commissioned by the Mid Atlantic Symphony Orchestra to be performed in March 2008.

Thomas is currently a seventh grade pupil at The Dalton School in New York, where he lives with his mother, father and 9 year old brother. In his spare time he enjoys listening to music, solving mathematical puzzles, reading, soccer, swimming and nature walks. Thomas is also a very keen mathematician and was the highest scoring student in his grade in the Mathematics League in New York State in 2006.