Biography

    Organist LADD THOMAS has been presented in recitals and concerts throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy and Mexico. Appearing in the famed music festivals of Spoleto, Italy and Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, he has also been featured recitalist at Bach Festivals in Honolulu and Carmel as well as national and regional conventions of The American Guild of Organists. His two solo recitals at the International Organ Festival in Mexico City were televised live and recorded for use on Mexican Educational Television. He frequently appears with numerous ensembles, playing continuo on both harpsichord and organ.

    Dr. Thomas has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra (in Ontario, Canada), Pasadena Chamber Orchestra, and the Pasadena, Long Beach and Glendale Symphony Orchestras, performing with conductors Zubin Mehta, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Christopher Seaman, Jorge Mester, William Hall, Roger Wagner, Richard Lert, Eduardo Mata, Boris Brott and Robert Duerr.

    Thomas has recorded on London-Decca with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, on Angel with the Roger Wagner Chorale, on Summit with the Master Chorale of Orange County, on Owl and Klavier with the William Hall Chorale, and on Avant and Western International with the Los Angeles Brass Society and the Los Angeles Brass Quintet. He also has recorded for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, Twentieth-Century Fox, Columbia and Universal Studios, and can be heard on many sound tracks including "Star Trek-The Movie", "Ghost Story", "Witches of Eastwick", "Ironweed", "Die Hard", "Her Alibi", "Beaches" and "Home Alone." Additional recordings have been made by Thomas for network television. He has recorded for a documentary of the 1988 Winter Olympics for the Disney TV Channel and was heard as organist in the television production "Grace Kelly", starring Cheryl Ladd, which aired internationally.

    Ladd Thomas is Professor of Music and Chair of the Organ Department at the Thorton School of Music at the University of Southern California. He is in demand for workshops and master classes for numerous chapters of The American Guild of Organists as well as for various colleges and universities throughout the country.

    Professor Thomas holds two degrees from Occidental College - a Bachelor of Arts and an honorary Doctor of Music (D. Mus.). He also received the degree, Master of Theology (M.Th.) from the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California. He studied piano with Gustav Riherd and Muriel Kerr, and organ with Max Miller, David Craighead and Clarence Mader.

    Thomas has served The American Guild of Organists in various capacities at the local, regional and national levels. Currently, he is President of the Ruth and Clarence Mader Memorial Scholarship Fund, a California non-profit corporation, which awards scholarships nationally to young organists and composers and offers grants for research related to organs and organ music.

    Since 1960 Dr. Thomas has served as the organist of the First United Methodist Church of Glendale, California. He is also organist for the Vallejo Drive Church of Seventh-day Adventists in Glendale. In 2000, his forty years of service to the Methodist church were recognized by the establishment of the Ladd Thomas Scholarship for Church Music at the Claremont School of Theology.

Current as of July 2, 2003.