Adrian Thomas is Emeritus Professor of Music at Cardiff University School of Music. He specializes in

Polish Music The Music of Poland covers diverse aspects of music and musical traditions which have originated, and are practiced in Poland. Artists from Poland include world-famous classical composers like Frédéric Chopin, Karol Szymanowski, Witold Lutosł ...

Academic career

Thomas began his professional career at

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

in 1973. Between 1983 and 1984, he was a visiting fellow at

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

, and after his return to Queen’s University he became the Hamilton Harty Professor of Music in 1985. He held this position until 1996, when he took up his role at Cardiff University. He retired in 2010. In addition to this, in 1983, 1986 and 1987, he held composition fellowships at the

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowell ...

in New Hampshire. Between 2003 and 2006, Thomas was the Professor of Music at

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...

in London.

Public career

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Thomas conducted concerts with the

Ulster Orchestra The Ulster Orchestra, based in Belfast, is the only full-time professional orchestra in Northern Ireland. The orchestra plays the majority of its concerts in Belfast's Ulster Hall and Waterfront Hall. It also gives concerts across the United Ki ...

and contemporary music ensembles such as Lontano. In the 1980s he had several compositions broadcast by

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

, including a commission for the

BBC Singers The BBC Singers are a British chamber choir, and the professional chamber choir of the BBC. One of the six BBC Performing Groups, the BBC Singers are based at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in London. The only full-time professional British c ...

, ''Black Rainbow'' (1989). In 1990-93 he was seconded by Queen’s University to the BBC, to become the Head of Music for BBC Radio 3, where, in 1993, he initiated the music and arts festival, ''Polska!'', a nationwide celebration of Polish music and culture. Between 2003 and 2006, as Gresham Professor of Music, Thomas delivered series of public lectures on Polish and Central European music. He was subsequently elected a Fellow of Gresham College (2006–09) and Emeritus Professor in 2009. He has served on public committees and boards at the Arts Councils in Northern Ireland and Wales and on the Research Panel for the Performing Arts at the Arts and Humanities Research Board (2000–03).

Academic interests

Adrian Thomas is a specialist on Polish music and has published widely on the topic. He has given research papers, public talks and broadcasts in Europe, the USA and Australia. He is the author of over fifty entries on twentieth-century Polish music in the Second Edition of ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (2000–01). For his 1997 book, ''Górecki'', Thomas received the Wilk Book Prize for Research in Polish Music (2002). He has received awards from the Polish Composers' Union (1989), the Polish Government (Order of Merit for Polish Culture, 1996) and the Lutosławski Society in Warsaw (2005).

Books

* ''Witold Lutosławski: Cello Concerto'' (Ashgate, in preparation), * ''Polish Music since Szymanowski'' (Cambridge: CUP, 2005), ) * ''Górecki'' (Oxford: OUP, 1997), ) * ''Bacewicz: Chamber and Orchestral Music'' (Los Angeles: USC, 1985), )

External links

Webpage at Cardiff University

Adrian Thomas's Lectures at Gresham College

Adrian Thomas's webpage (since 2011)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Adrian 20th-century classical composers Academics of Cardiff University BBC executives Living people Professors of Gresham College Year of birth missing (living people) Male classical composers 20th-century male musicians