Trumpeter from Sioux City, Iowa, who attended Northwestern University, Tanglewood Music Center and the University of Minnesota, where he studied with David Baldwin.
In 1986, he became a member of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and stayed with them for five years. He joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1991. Other groups with whom he has worked include the American Ballet Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the BSO Brass Quintet, the Empire Brass, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Vienna Philharmonic.
Recordings on which he appears comprise America, Encore!, Holiday Pops, It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing, My Favorite Things: A Richard Rodgers Celebration, Runnin’ Wild: Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Play Glenn Miller and A Splash of Pops by the Boston Pops, Experiments in Music by Norman Bolter and The “Frequency Band” Endeavour, The Glory of Gabrieli by Empire Brass and Rolf Smedvig, and the soundtracks of The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century and Saving Private Ryan.
On 4th July 2001, he performed “Summon the Heroes” by John Williams on a national broadcast of a Boston Pops Orchestra concert.
The BSO performed Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, Op. 35” featuring Thomas and Marc Andre-Hamelin at Symphony Hall on 15th April 2010.
On 17th October 2010, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players gave the world premiere of “Octet for Eleven” by Andre Previn.
In the field of music education, he has taught at Boston University, the New England Conservatory of Music and Tanglewood Music Center, participated in a panel discussion and presentation of “The Teaching of Vincent Cichowicz” at Benedictine University, gave a master class at the Mannes College of Music, and was a guest artist at the National Brass Symposium at Kennesaw State University in June 2011.
Sources:
- http://necmusic.edu/faculty/thomas-rolfs?lid=2&sid=3
- http://lipsofsteel.com/teach.html
- http://www.discogs.com/artist/Thomas+Rolfs
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/thomas-rolfs-q88405/credits/all
- http://www.hbdirect.com/browse_classical.php?specific_instrument=Trumpet&label=T&specific_label=Telarc&performer=R&specific_performer=Rolfs%2C+Thomas&v_0=specific_instrument&v_1=label&v_2=specific_label&v_3=performer&v_4=specific_performer&&v_5=composer&composer=T&v_6=specific_composer&specific_composer=Tallis%2C+Thomas
- http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=2373
- http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/normanbolter3
- http://www.grandorchestras.com/bostonpops/albums/williams_it_dont_mean_a_thing.html
- http://www.trombone.net/events/event.cfm?ID=3484
- http://www.ben.edu/academic_programs/liberal_arts/departments/music/faculty-loubriel.cfm
- http://www.newschool.edu/mannes/subpage.aspx?id=12718
- http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_concert_review.php?id=8119
- http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2420&State_2874=2&workId_2874=44836
- http://www.miguelfelipe.com/dl/prog-041016-BU.pdf
- http://www.alistarts.com/?p=286