PAUL THOMAS
ASSOCIATE MUSIC DIRECTOR
& ORGANIST
Paul Thomas is the recently appointed Director of Music of St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, TN. He earned the Master of Music degree in organ performance and Certificate in Church Music Studies from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied organ with Thomas Murray and organ improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart. While at Yale, he received the Richard Paul DeLong prize for the student “whose work best exemplifies the dedication and the use of those special gifts required of practicing church musicians.” His undergraduate studies were at Furman University, where he studied organ with Charles Tompkins.
Paul has given solo organ recitals throughout the eastern United States, notably at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Woolsey Hall at Yale, Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, and Washington National Cathedral.
An accomplished choral musician, Paul conducted the professional choir of the Episcopal Church at Yale for three years, and is Assistant Director of early music ensemble The King’s Counterpoint. He has sung as a solo baritone with The King’s Counterpoint, the Charleston Bach Ensemble, and the Pro Musica chamber ensemble of the Yale Camerata. In the Berkeley Divinity School choir at Yale, he served as the bass section leader, and he has served as a deputy bass for several churches in New Haven and Charleston. He has accompanied choirs at the organ on domestic and international tours, including weeklong residencies at Canterbury, Ely, and Wells Cathedrals, as well as Westminster Abbey. He frequently accompanies the College of Charleston Concert Choir, The King’s Counterpoint, and the Taylor Festival Choir, with whom he has performed Duruflé’s Requiem and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. He received second prize in the Schoenstein Competition in the Art of Organ Accompaniment.
Paul is a committed teacher of young musicians, training choirs for children and youth affiliated with the Royal School of Church Music. He teaches private music lessons and has adjudicated the Young Organist Competition of the Columbia, SC American Guild of Organists.