Music

Thomas Neenan, Director of Music

Thomas Neenan is also Music Director and Conductor of The Saint Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, and Lecturer in Music History and Music Theory at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena. He has been Music Director of Saint Matthew’s Parish since 1981.

Mr. Neenan holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance from California State University, Northridge, and A Master of Fine Arts Degree from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) where he was honored with an Outstanding Academic Achievement Award and was a prize winner in the Atwater-Kent Performance Competition. He includes among his teachers David Britton, Thomas Harmon and Delores Stevens, Jean Langlais, and Ernst-Ulrich von Kameke. As a recital organist he has performed in the United States as well as in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Japan and Switzerland.

At Caltech he teaches a full complement of music courses including a two-year series of music history courses, a music theory sequence and a variety of special topics courses including History of Opera, Major Figures in Music, the History of Jazz, and Choral-Orchestral Literature. In 2001 he was honored by the Caltech student body with an Outstanding Teaching Award. He is a featured speaker in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's "Upbeat Live" pre-concert presentations.

With Saint Matthew's Parish Choir and Saint Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra he has premiered more than two dozen works, including those by Maria Newman, Mark Falcone, David Newman, Mary Lou Newmark, Sasha Matson, Thomas Pasatieri, Craig Phillips, Joseph Curiale, Roger Bourland, Paul Chihara, Dwayne S. Milburn, Gerald Near and John O’Reilly.

Mr. Neenan and the Choir of Saint Matthew’s Parish toured Central Europe during the summer of 2003, singing services and concerts in Budapest, Tabor (CZ), Prague, Leipzig (St. Thomas), Dresden (Frauenkirche) and Naumburg (St. Wenzel’s). In 2006 the Choir toured Ireland, Wales and Southern England, singing Evensong services and concerts in Killarney, Dublin, St. David's, Salisbury, Tavistock and Wimborne Minster.

Mr. Neenan is a Past President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, a past Treasurer of the Association of Anglican Musicians and is currently Treasurer of the Anglican Musicians Foundation - a non-profit organization committed to the elevation, stimulation and support of music and the allied arts in the Anglican Church. He has served as treasurer for two international conferences of the Association of Anglican Musicians and is Co-Chair of that organization's 2008 conference in Los Angeles.

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