Youth Orchestra of the Rockies

Thomas began his lifelong love affair with music at the age of four when his parents took him to an orchestra concert featuring The Little Train of the Caipira by Heiter Villa-Lobos and Ballet Suite from Estancia by Alberto Ginastera, both works featuring percussion. It was at this concert that Thomas met his most important teacher John Galm, who was Professor of Percussion at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Thomas studied with Professor Galm through high school, and at the age of fourteen Thomas was accepted to the prestigious Aspen Music School to study with Charles Owen, principal percussionist with the Philadelphia Orchestra for 18 years under Maestro Eugene Ormandy. That summer Bill Moyers came to Aspen to film a PBS special on Aaron Copland, who was always in residence during the summers in Aspen. Mr. Owen saw fit to assign Thomas the gong part on Mr. Copland’s famous Fanfare for the Common Man, with Copland conducting as a part of the PBS special. In addition to working with Aaron Copland, Thomas spent four formative years performing at the Aspen Music Festival, where he also worked and studied with Elliot Carter, Krystof Penderecki, and members of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony.

Upon graduation from high school, Thomas was accepted to the Hochschule fur Musik in West Berlin, Germany, where he studied with members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Deutsche Oper. He was offered a position with the Theatre des Westens after substituting for a fellow percussionist, but chose to return to the USA to continue his studies with timpanist James Rago of the Louisville Orchestra, whom he had met and studied with in Aspen. Shortly after Thomas began his studies at the University of Louisville, KY, he became a member of the Louisville Orchestra, where he performed and recorded for four years, working with composers Karel Husa, Morton Gould, Michael Colgrass, Lukas Foss, David Amram, Claude Baker, Maestro Lawrence Leighton Smith and many others. He also performed with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria (Mexico City) and the Evansville (IN) Philharmonic at this time.

When the Louisville Orchestra went on strike in the fall of 1984, Thomas moved to Denver to be timpanist of the Denver Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Joann Falletta. Since that time, Thomas has also performed with the Colorado Ballet Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Boulder Philharmonic, the Bedford Springs Music Festival (PA), the Colorado Music Festival, and was Percussionist and Artist in Residence at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Denver. He also decided to return to school to complete a degree in conducting, earning a Bachelor of Music Performance degree from the Metropolitan State College of Denver and a Master of Arts in Conducting from the University of Denver. Thomas’ baton once belonged to Frederick Fennel and is a gift from his mentor and teacher Dr. William Nichols, who received it as a gift from Dr. Fennel.

He has led the following ensembles on the podium: the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, the Denver Chamber Orchestra, the Mostly Strauss Orchestra, the Boulder Brass, and was founder and Music Director of the Mercury Ensemble for eleven years. He was Assistant Conductor for the Junior Symphony Guild’s educational programs “Inside the Orchestra” and “Tiny Tots” for ten years.

Currently Thomas is Music Director of the Colorado Chamber Orchestra and the Mile High Community Band as well as percussionist with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and the Denver Municipal Band. As an educator, he currently teaches at Red Rocks Community College and previously taught at Metropolitan State College of Denver and Monmouth College (IL). He continues to be a freelance musician throughout Colorado, writes and arranges music, plays drum set for Goat Magnet (a jazz group), jazz vibes with the UFS, and has performed in New Zealand with Tempist Fujit, a rock and roll band. His composition, A Brighton Serenade, is the title cut for The Mercury Ensembles’ CD for Sonora Productions. Thomas resides in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wonderful wife pianist Noriko Nikki Tsuchiya and enjoys cycling, hiking, and gardening when he gets a break from his many demanding musical roles.

Arturo Gonzalez was born in Mexico City, Mexico where he received a Bachelor degree in Piano Performance and Orchestral Conducting. He moved to the United States to pursue a Masters degree in Sacred Music and Choral Conducting from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where he was awarded a full international scholarship. He has studied at Westminster Choir School and UCLA, with prominent conductors such as Joseph Flumerfelt, Donald Neuen, Paul Salmunovich, and Anton Armstrong. He has been on the faculties of El Paso Community College, the University of Texas in El Paso, East Central College in Saint Louis, Missouri and the University of Chihuahua in Mexico. Arturo was the Music Director for El Paso Association for the Performing Arts, The Ballet/Theatre of the Border, East Central Summer productions, guest conductor of the Midwest Lyric Opera, University City Orchestra, the State Orchestra of Guanajuato, Symphony Orchestra of the National Conservatory in Mexico, and the Carlos Chavez Youth Orchestra of El Sistema in Mexico.

He currently attends the University of Colorado, Boulder where he is pursuing a Doctoral degree in conducting. Arturo was one of eight semi-finalists of the American Choral Director Conducting Competition, the only student in the history of the University of Colorado to achieve this recognition. He has directed since he was seventeen years old and has conducted choirs and orchestras throughout Mexico, Central America, the United States, and Spain. Future engagements include conducting productions of La Bohème and Rigoletto with the Opera of Monterey and returning as a guest conductor of the Carlos Chavez Youth Orchestra. His choral arrangements have been published by Choristers Guild and Asbury Press.

Mrs. Lois Owsley, her husband and two daughters moved to the Fort Collins area from Lakewood, California in September 2008. She has a BA in Violin Performance from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado and an MA in Music Education from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. She has played in symphony orchestras and other musical events as well as taught hundreds of students on stringed instruments and piano in her home-based Personal Notes Music Studio in Louisiana (Lake Charles, Alexandria, Natchitoches), Bountiful, Utah, California (Escondido, Poway, San Marcos, Monterey, Sunnyvale, San Jose, Lakewood) and now Fort Collins, Colorado. She has been a member of MENC, a long-time member of Music Teachers Association of California (MTAC) and is currently with the local FCMTA (Fort Collins Music Teacher’s Association. Mrs. Owsley took certification classes at California State University Long Beach in 2007 to update the changes that have occurred in music education and attended five Birch Bay String Orchestra Teacher’s Workshops in Ferndale, Washington (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011).

Mrs. Lois Owsley provides personalized instruction on violin, viola, cello and piano, a lab with computerized theory lessons and opportunities to perform. She also teaches elementary music appreciation classes at Olive Tree (a school for the home-schooled community), plays with the praise team and teaches Bible classes and at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church where her husband is a pastor. She played viola and/or violin with PVH orchestra from fall of 2008 until Summer of 2011, serving as concertmaster last year.