Thomas Kociela can be reached at TGKociela@gmail.com

Thomas Kociela is Music Director of the Rhode Island College Symphony Orchestra and the Parkway Concert Orchestra (Norwood, MA). He is also the Resident Multi-Camera Video Director at Symphony Hall in Boston.  He is the former Music Director of the Lowell Philharmonic Orchestra, where he received an Official Citation by Lowell Mayor Sokhary Chau.  The citation reads in part “Thomas Kociela has fully dedicated himself to bringing people together through music”.  Highlights from Thomas’s tenure include musical programs featuring the Cambodian community, the Greek community, as well as during the pandemic with the help of prominent civic leaders he created and presented – More Than Self, A Tribute to the Nurses, Doctors and Staff at Lowell General Hospital.  This special was highlighted by the League of American Orchestras and the International Conductors Guild.

As a performer, Thomas performed as a substitute musician with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) for seven years.  He has shared the stage with conductors and artists such as Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, James Conlon, Yo-Yo Ma, Michelle DeYoung, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, David Robertson, Sir James Galway, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sir Mark Elder, Edwin Outwater, Alastair Willis, and Sir Patrick Stewart. Thomas traveled to Carnegie Hall on tour with the CSO three times, performing under Pierre Boulez and Riccardo Muti – and once to Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor with the CSO. He also performed with the CSO for Festa Muti! A Free Concert for Chicago in Millennium Park (Muti’s first concert as Music Director). Thomas has also performed with the Ars Viva Symphony, Chicago Composers Orchestra, Kenosha Symphony, Racine Symphony, West Michigan Symphony, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, among others.

While in Chicago, Thomas was the assistant conductor at the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, and he conducted ensembles at the University of Chicago and the Chicago High School for the Arts. He also served as the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Pathways Neighborhood Ensembles Music Director, designing and implementing ensemble and private lesson programs at underserved schools around Chicago.

Thomas earned a master’s degree in conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music and a bachelor’s degree in performance and music education from the Chicago College of Performing Arts studying under Jay Friedman and Charles Groeling respectively. He has pursued additional studies and masterclasses with conductor pedagogues Neil Thomson, Neil Varon, Victor Yampolsky, Cristian Măcelaru, Robert Franz, Markand Thakar, David Jacobs, Erin Freeman, and Donald Schleicher.

Thomas Kociela can be reached at TGKociela@gmail.com