Christopher B. Thomas is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ, Artistic Director of the Greater South Jersey Chorus in Haddonfield, NJ and past-president of the New Jersey chapter of the American Choral Director’s Association (NJACDA).
At Rowan University, Dr. Thomas oversees curricular choirs of over two-hundred singers. He conducts the Rowan University Concert Choir, the flagship choral ensemble of the department of music, and Voces, a chamber ensemble which performs early, contemporary, and improvisatory projects. Additionally, Dr. Thomas teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in choral conducting and choral literature. Under his direction, choirs at Rowan University have performed at regional and state conferences of ACDA and NJMEA and internationally on tours throughout Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. Recent highlights of the choral program have included a successful Tenor|Bass Festival which hosted over 1400 young tenors and basses, a performance by the Concert Choir for the 2020 Eastern Division ACDA conference in Rochester, NY in the beautiful Hochstein School of Music, performing The Here and Now, a multi-movement setting of texts by Rumi, scored for choir and wind ensemble by American composer Christopher Theofanidis, and preparing the chorus for the Rowan Opera Company’s production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Dr. Thomas has twice been invited to serve as assistant conductor and instructor for the Varna International Music Academy, culminating in performances of The Creation by Joseph Haydn and Mozart’s Requiem in opera houses throughout Bulgaria. Domestically, guest conducting engagements including all-state and regional honor choruses have taken him to Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. His work as a guest conductor is consistently recognized as energetic, inspiring, and inclusive of all levels of experience and ability.
Since 2016 Dr. Thomas has been the Artistic Director of the Greater South Jersey Chorus which collaborates with regional orchestras such as the Bay Atlantic Symphony and the Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey in addition to stand-alone performances with the regions finest professional musicians. Recent performances have included Beethoven Ninth Symphony, Puccini Messa di Gloria, McCullough Let My People Go!, James Whitbourn Annelies, Handel Messiah, Haydn Creation, Mozart Solemn Vespers, Respighi Laud to the Nativity, Vivaldi Gloria, Conrad Susa Carols and Lullabies, and Haydn Lord Nelson Mass.
Dr. Thomas studied music education at Millikin University with Dr. Brad Holmes and earned his graduate degrees in Choral Conducting at the University of Arizona under the direction of Dr. Bruce Chamberlain. Before coming to Rowan, he served as director of music at several churches, as well as a music educator in Illinois and at a Waldorf school in Arizona. He is an active member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) and the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).