Thomas Brooman (b. 1 April 1954) is a festival organiser and promoter of music, best known for his role as co-founder and artistic director of the
WOMAD
WOMAD ( ; World of Music, Arts and Dance) is an international arts festival. The central aim of WOMAD is to celebrate the world's many forms of music, arts and dance.
History
WOMAD was founded in 1980 by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, w ...
(World of Music Arts & Dance) festival organisation.
Early life
Born in Bristol in 1954, he attended
Bristol Grammar School
Bristol Grammar School (BGS) is a 4–18 mixed, independent day school in Bristol, England. It was founded in 1532 by Royal Charter for the teaching of 'good manners and literature', endowed by wealthy Bristol merchants Robert and Nicholas Thorn ...
and spent time during his childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He attended
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
, reading English Language and Literature at
Exeter College under the tutorship of
Jonathan Wordsworth
Jonathan Fletcher Wordsworth (28 November 1932 – 21 June 2006) was an English academic, literary critic and expert on the Romantic era in literature.
Life
He was a great-great-great nephew of William Wordsworth and the great-great-grandson of C ...
, graduating in 1976. The second child in an academic family, his father Frederick S. Brooman was an author and economics lecturer at Bristol University, subsequently Professor of Economics at The
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
.
Returning to Bristol after graduation from Oxford, Thomas took a path in music, firstly as a drummer during the heyday of punk music in the late 'seventies with several bands in Bristol, including The Media, The Spics and The Tesco Chainstore Massacre. In 1980, with a group of friends, he established a record magazine publication called ''
The Bristol Recorder
The English city of Bristol has, since the mid-1970s, had a fertile music culture, resulting in not only influential musicians and bands, but also its own sound, Bristol sound or trip hop. Along with the music, a number of local record labels al ...
'', and through this project made contact with the English artist
Peter Gabriel with whom the concept of WOMAD was born.
WOMAD Festival
In early 1981, with Peter Gabriel and a group of colleagues, including
Martin Elbourne, chef Jonathan Arthur, Stephen Pritchard and Bob Hooton, Thomas devised and organised the first WOMAD Festival in 1982. Over the following twenty six years he then worked as Festival and Artistic Director of the WOMAD Festival, leading the establishment of WOMAD as an organisation and its affiliated charity, the WOMAD Foundation, in 1983. WOMAD Festivals helped to establish a wider audience for many international artists and contributed to the identification of world music as a description of music from a global context.
As Artistic Director of WOMAD, through until 2008, he programmed and collaborated in the production of more than one hundred and forty five WOMAD Festivals and events in twenty-four countries
and islands; in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America.
Other activities
In 1987 he co-founded Real World Records, a label conceived as a creative partnership between Peter Gabriel and the WOMAD organisation.
In 2000 Thomas also ventured into the world of pub ownership with the purchase of Bristol's historic
Palace Hotel in Old Market. Built in 1869, The Palace is a landmark Bristol City centre building and famous for its sloping bar floor and elaborate Victorian columns and ornamentation. At the time of its purchase in 2000, the whole building was in need of total refurbishment and Thomas undertook the project with the help of a small but dedicated team. The Palace opened its doors to the public again in October 2000 and built a loyal following for its music-centred atmosphere featuring weekly gigs and a Saturday night DJ residency featuring Bristol's legendary
DJ Derek.
Since 2008 he has worked as a music advisor with
Dartington Hall
Dartington Hall in Dartington, near Totnes, Devon, England, is an historic house and country estate of dating from medieval times. The group of late 14th century buildings are Grade I listed; described in Pevsner's Buildings of England as "on ...
and Creative Youth Network in Bristol and as a music mentor with South West Music School. Thomas also now works as freelance Music Programmer for
Salisbury Arts Centre.
Described by the BBC as having an 'open-minded, music-first, approach' he has worked on collaborative and creative projects with many artists from all over the world, including
Bill Cobham and Asere,
Madosini
Latozi "Madosini" Mpahleni (25 December 1943 – 23 December 2022) was a South African musician, known for playing Xhosa traditional instruments such as the '' uhadi'' and ''mhrubhe'' musical bows, and the '' isitolotolo''.
Madosini performed u ...
and
Patrick Duff,
David D'Or
David D'Or ( he, דוד ד'אור; born David Nehaisi on October 2, 1965) is an Israeli singer, composer, and songwriter. A countertenor with a vocal range of more than four octaves, he is a three-time winner of the Israeli "Singer of the Year" a ...
,
Totó La Momposina
Sonia Bazanta Vides (born 1 August 1940), better known as Totó la Momposina, is a Colombian singer of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous descent. She reached international attention with the release of her 1993 album ''La Candela Viva'' on Peter G ...
,
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ( pa, ; born Pervez Fateh Ali Khan; 13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997) was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. He was primarily a singer of qawwali — a form of Sufi devotional music. Sometimes ...
,
Terem Quartet and
Trilok Gurtu
Trilok Gurtu (born 30 October 1951) is an Indian percussionist and composer whose work has blended the music of India with jazz fusion and world music.
He has worked with Terje Rypdal, Gary Moore, John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Joe Zawinul, ...
. He has also been extensively involved in record compilation and production work.
Awards and honours
Described by ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' newspaper as a 'visionary artistic director' Thomas was also recognised in 2005 by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
(British Broadcasting Corporation) as recipient of the first World Shaker Award in the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music.
In 2008 he was made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his life services to music and charity.