Thomas, Ronald (1954

Cellist and producer who attended the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music and studied with Mary Canberg, Lorne Munroe and David Soyer.

Groups with whom he has worked include the Aeolian Chamber Players, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Blossom Festival Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Violoncello Society.

He has served on the Board of Overseers and has been one of the original Players in Residence for Bargemusic in Brooklyn, New York. On 31^st August 1989, he and violinist Theodore Arm and pianist Shigeo Neriki appeared in a recital on Fulton Ferry Landing. Their program comprised Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2” (“Moonlight”), Antonin Dvorak’s “Piano Trio in F minor, Op. 65” and Edvard Grieg’s “Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 36”.

Ronald participated in the Seattle Chamber Music Festival in 1995, when he performed “Quartet in A minor, Op. 35” by Anton Arensky and “Suite No. 1 for Solo Cello, Op. 72” by Benjamin Britten.

He has been very active in Chamber Music Northwest in Portland Oregon. In 1997, he and violinist Ani Kavafian, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and violist Paul Neubauer offered up “Quartet in C minor, Op. 15” by Gabriel Faure.

He and pianist Randall Hodgkinson, violist Cynthia Phelps and violinist Daniel Phillips performed Faure’s “Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 45” in 2000. He was one of a baker’s dozen of musicians who interpreted the original version of the Appalachian Spring suite by Aaron Copland.

In 2002, he and violists Paul Neubauer and Cynthia Phelps and violinists Todd Phillips and Alexander Simionescu offered up “Quintet in C major, K. 515” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

He revisited Mozart in 2006 when he played cello in a performance of “Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major, K. 449” which was paired with Felix Mendelssohn’s “Quintet in B flat major, Op. 87”.

In January 2008, he was one of the members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra who performed Leon Kirchner’s “Concerto for Violin, Cello, Ten Winds and Percussion”.

He and violinist Jennifer Frautschi and pianist Pedja Muzijevic appeared at the Inn in Rancho Santa Fe, California, on 22^nd March 2009. Their recital included Mozart’s “Sonata in G major, K. 379 (373a)”, Mendelssohn’s “Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66” and Robert Schumann’s “Adagio and Allegro in A flat major, Op. 70”.

On 6^th August 2010, he participated in the Summer Festival which featured Ernst von Dohnanyi’s “Serenade in C major, Op. 10”, Dvorak’s “Quintet in E flat majore, Op. 97” and Sergei Prokofiev’s “Overture on Hebrew Themes in C minor, Op. 34”.

He has also served as Artistic Director for the Chestnut Hill series of concerts which take place in Madison, Connecticut. In 2011, he and pianist Benjamin Hochman teamed up for Johannes Brahms’ “Sonata in E minor, Op. 38”. They were joined by violist Maiya Papach and violinist Steven Copes for Faure’s “Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15”.

On 2^nd July 2012, he was on hand for another Chamber Music Northwest concert in Kaul Auditorium at Reed College. The program paired Dohnanyi’s “Sextet in C Major” with Franz Schubert’s “Quintet in C major”.

He was one of the friends when Erin Keefe and Friends gave an alumni recital in Field Concert Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 24^th February 2013. The triple-header included Brahms’ “Sextet No. 2 in G major, Op. 36”, Dvorak’s “Miniatures, Op. 75a” and Richard Strauss’s “Sonata in E flat major, Op. 18”.

He also co-founded the Boston Chamber Music Society, for whom he performed and served as artistic director for twenty-six years.

Recordings on which he appears include: Aaron Copland/Arthur Foote: Chamber Music with Flute and Ned Rorem: Chamber Music with Flute by Fenwick Smith; Brahms: Clarinet Trio/Clarinet Quintet and Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence/Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht with the BCMS; Brandenburgs from the Barge; Daniel S. Godfrey: Wrinkled Moon with members of the SPCO; Esquire Jazz Collection: Breakthrough!; The Milken Archive of American Jewish Music; Shostakovich: Trio No. 2 in E minor for Violin, Cello and Piano, Op. 67/Sonata in D minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 40; Viennese Guitar; and, Yehudi Wyner: The Mirror/Passover Offering/Tants un Maysele.

In the field of music education, he has given master classes and taught at the Boston Conservatory, Brown University, the Curtis Institute of Music, M.I.T., the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Wellesley.

Sources:

Thomas, Ronald (1954–Present)

Navigate Feenotes

Search Feenotes

Please donate to keep the site alive