Thomas Piercy is a critically acclaimed musician with orchestral, concerto, solo recital and chamber music appearances throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Described by The New York Times as passionate and evoking panache in contemporary fare, Mr. Piercy is a versatile artist, presenting 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 rare rosewood large-bore clarinets made for him by Luis Rossi of Santiago, Chile, and Buffet Prestige clarinets with Opperman mouthpieces and barrels. His sound has been described by critics as uniquely beautiful and consistently warm.
Mr. Piercy has performed at many of the worlds acclaimed concerts halls including Carnegie Hall (NY, NY), Lincoln Center (NY, NY), the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC.), the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series (Chicago, Illinois), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Wigmore Hall (London, England) and Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome, Italy). A versatile artist defying categorization – playing Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Earl Wild; performing concert improvisations with Donal Fox; performing Mozart with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade; playing Broadway songs with Raoul Julia; conducting Cabaret or Rodgers & Hammerstein; working with the composer Leonard Bernstein; appearing in a KRS-ONE music video; performing on the Emmy-winning children’s CD and DVD Juno Baby - as an instrumentalist, singer, director and music director/conductor and actor, he has performed for Broadway and Off-Broadway, television, radio, video and commercial recordings.
His many festival appearances have included a featured performance in memory of Leon Russianoff at the 1991 International ClarinetFest and a concert of contemporary American music at the 2005 ClarinetFest in Tokyo, Japan. He will perform an all-Piazzolla program at the 2007 International Clarinet Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He has performed in concerts and festivals in England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark, The United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
A recipient of numerous scholarships, prizes and awards, 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 studied with and soon became an assistant to the renowned clarinet pedagogue Leon Russianoff; additional clarinet studies and reed-making studies were undertaken with clarinetist, reed, barrel and mouthpiece maker, and composer Kalmen Opperman. In demand as a clarinet, saxophone and voice teacher, many of Piercy's students have gone on to schools and careers in music and he has contributed to several published clarinet study books.
Piercy is currently the Artistic Director and clarinetist of the Gotham Ensemble. A mixed 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 avant-garde. A New York Times review of Gotham's Merkin Hall, New York City, performance of a program of Olav Thommessen's music specifically encouraged the public to go out and purchase the recordings. 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. Albany Records recently released “Gotham Ensemble Plays Ned Rorem,” a CD of Ned Rorem's chamber music featuring the clarinet.
A frequent performer of new music, Mr. Piercy has premiered numerous compositions, many of them written for him, by such composers as Milton Babbit, Allan Blank, Ed Bland, Philippe Bodin, Wendy Mae Chambers, Elisenda Fabrégas, David Featherolf, Donal Fox, Nicolas Gilbert, Silas Huff, Benjamin Lees, Sergey Oskolkov, Joseph Perhson, André Ristic, Robert Xavier Rodriguez, Erin Rogers, Manly Romero, Ned Rorem, Marjorie Rusche, Garth Sunderland, Olav Anton Thommessen, Perry Townsend and many others.
Mr. Rorem, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Grammy Award-winning composer, wrote his only clarinet and piano piece, “Four Colors," for Mr. Piercy. The work had its premier at an 80th birthday concert celebration for Mr. Rorem at Carnegie Hall in the fall of 2003.
Upcoming projects include CD releases of music by Villa-Lobos, Piazzolla, Clarinet & Guitar music, and a second volume of Ned Rorem chamber works featuring the clarinet.
