Living near: New York City
Clarinet Expertise: Professional Performer and Recording Artist: Chamber Music, Contemporary Music; Teacher
E-Mail: TBPiercy@aol.com

Thomas Piercy is a critically acclaimed musician with orchestral solo, recital and chamber music appearances throughout North America and Europe. Described by The New York Times as passionate and pulling out all the stops, Mr. Piercy presents audiences to varied and exciting concerts of standard classical music, jazz-inspired programs, contemporary works, pieces written specifically for him and his own original arrangements, compositions and collaborations. Piercy performs and records on Buffet Prestige clarinets with Opperman mouthpieces and barrels and on rare Rosewood large bore clarinets made for him by Luis Rossi of Santiago, Chile. His sound has been described by critics as uniquely beautiful and consistently warm.

Mr. Piercy has performed to critical acclaim at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall and other venues in New York City. He has appeared in Washington, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as other cities throughout the United States. He has performed for Broadway, television, radio and in music videos as both an instrumentalist and vocalist. His many U. S. festival appearances have included a featured performance at the International Clarinet Festival. He has performed in concerts and festivals in England, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark.

Thomas Piercy's relationship as a student of three of the most revered clarinetists and teachers of the 20th century -- Gervase De Peyer, Kalmen Opperman, Leon Russianoff -- give Piercy an exceptional and extraordinarily valuable perspective to clarinet performance and teaching methods. He combines these acclaimed pedagogues and performers invaluable experience and influences with his own to bring about an exciting and varied teaching method tailored to each of his students unique strengths and needs.

Piercy maintains a private teaching studio in New York City where he teaches clarinet, saxophone and voice to students of all ages and levels. Many of his high school students have been competition winners, performed in festivals and continued their studies in colleges and conservatories to pursue careers in music. His current and former students have performed in concert, on Broadway, TV and radio. Thomas Piercy conducts Master Classes in colleges, universities, community music schools, high schools and festivals throughout the United States and Europe. His teaching credits include his private studio in New York City, the Music Consortium of Long Island, and Sunset Park School of Music, where he is also the Executive Director.

Piercy has been the recipient of numerous scholarships, national and international prizes and awards including the Sifting Foundation Award for Excellence in the Arts. He studied clarinet, voice and conducting at the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Virginia Commonwealth University and Shenandoah Conservatory. Piercy's earliest studies were in both voice and clarinet. He began his college education studying clarinet under Dr. Stephen Johnston at Shenandoah Conservatory and Gailyn Parks at Virginia Commonwealth University. He later moved to New York City to study with Gervase De Peyer under scholarship at Mannes College of Music; he continued to study extensively with De Peyer after leaving Mannes. Piercy later began studying with and soon became an assistant to the renowned clarinet pedagogue Leon Russianoff. Additional studies were undertaken with the famed clarinet teacher Kalmen Opperman where he changed to double lip embouchure. In demand as a clarinet sax and voice teacher, many of Piercy's students have gone on to schools and careers in music.

Piercy is currently the Artistic Director and clarinetist of the Gotham Ensemble. A mixed instrumental vocal and instrumental ensemble based in New York City, the Gotham Ensemble premieres, performs and records a wide variety of repertoire, from the Classical to the Avante-Garde. After a performance of Ned Rorem's ARIEL at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Rorem wrote of Gotham as one of America's important chamber music groups performing new music today. The Gotham Ensemble recently recorded a CD of Ned Rorem's chamber music for Albany Records. A New York Times review of Gotham's Merkin Hall performance of a program of Olav Thommessen's music specifically encouraged the public to go out and purchase the recordings.

Recordings of Mr. Piercy as a soloist and chamber musician are available on Albany Records, DGR, and Capstone records. See ThomasPiercy.com for more information.