The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Thomas Bollier Talented musician Eric Thomas is the director of band activities on campus.

Composer Edward Elgar once said that "there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require." Director of Band Activities Eric Thomas has certainly taken full advantage of the music around him, and in doing so has made the music in the air all that much more accessible for students on the Hill.

Thomas, who moved frequently as a child, began his musical career while in elementary school. Thomas's Los Angeles school tested students for advanced programs. "They gave me a test and said 'oh my gosh you need to take lessons!'' Thomas said. Thomas scored high enough that the area superintendent of music programs spoke with his parents personally and encouraged them to place him in private lessons. "I choose the trombone, but they told me that I would never be tall enough," Thomas said. According to Thomas, however, the real reason the school discouraged him from the trombone was their need for clarinet and violin players. "I thought the violin was too dweeby," Thomas said with a smile.

Although neither of them were musicians themselves, Thomas's parents were supportive of his musical talents from the beginning. "My mother took piano lessons as a child but never went beyond Clementi, and my father was tone deaf," Thomas said. Their lack of experience in the music world did not stop his family from putting extensive effort into supporting Thomas's career, an activity which required shuttling between his various performance groups and opportunities. "The superintendent had told us that we should always call the closest symphony and ask the management who the best teachers in the area were," Thomas said, "not the best musicians but the best teachers." This ensured that Thomas was able to study with a variety of masterful teachers.

With the same ease with which he transferred locations, Thomas also explored a variety of musical genres. His initial studies were "entirely classical, although I did transcribe [some jazz] when I was in fourth grade. I would sit down and figure out in a 9-year-old kind of way how to play [songs like] 'When the Saints Go Marching In,'" Thomas said. During high school, Thomas played with his high school jazz band, but in junior high, while living in a predominantly German area, he explored the spirited sounds of polka music. Thomas also sampled the rich melodies and counterpoint of Klezmer, and the more modern tones of rock and roll. After playing with rock bands, "I thought I should buy a sax and play in a jazz band," Thomas said of his participation in his high school band.

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