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Thomas J Folan, Conductor

American conductor, Thomas J Folan born Norwood, Massachusetts on February 24, 1961. He attended private Catholic school through the eighth grade, then completed high school in the local public school system, graduating in 1979. Attended Oberlin College from 1981 through 1985 where he majored in German Studies. Concurrently he attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied Music History. He received dual degrees from both the college and the conservatory, earning a BA in German Studies, and a BM in Music History. As a graduate student, Folan attended the Ithaca College School of Music, where he received a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting along with a certificate in Dalcroze Education. Upon graduation he was inducted into the Music National Honor Society - Phi Kappa Lambda. After graduation Folan taught at Ithaca College as a sabbatical replacement and pursued a career as a freelance conductor. He held posts with the Cantata Singers of Elmira, New York, as Director and was employed as a musician in a number of churches, acting as Music Director and Organist. In 1996 Thomas Folan began his doctoral studies at the Eastman School of Music where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2003. Among his teachers was the renowned conductor and musicologist Dr. Alfred Mann. Upon graduation, Folan continued to teach at various colleges and universities. He was an adjunct faculty member in the Music Department at Skidmore College from 1994 -1995. In 1996 he moved to Rochester, New York to pursue his doctoral studies while simultaneously holding the position of Lecturer in Music - Choral Conducting - at the River Campus of the University of Rochester. From 1992 through 2007 he was the Music Director and Conductor of the Rochester Bach Festival (Rochester, NY) and Co-founder and Associate Director of The Publick Musick, a nationally recognized Early Music orchestra and choir. Along with co-founder Steven Zohn, the ensemble made three recordings - 2 by Bach for the Musica Omnia label and one on the indie label Sonabilis. In addition to recordings, the ensemble was awarded the prestigious Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society. The ensemble performed regularly in upstate New York, and appeared at Festivals such as the Boston Early Music Festival, the Indianapolis Early Music Festival and the Bloomington Early Music Festival. Other performances included numerous colleges and universities including Cornell University, Skidmore College, Temple University, The College of William and Mary, and the University of Rochester. (school in Maine)

From 2004 through 2013 Thomas Folan was Pastoral Musician at St. Peter's Memorial Episcopal Church in Dansville, New York (Rochester area), where he coordinated the music program, acted as organist and organized a concert series. In 2007 Folan organized the Alfred Mann Music Festival in conjunction with Dr. William Weinert of the Eastman School of Music. The three day festival celebrated the life and work of Dr Mann through a series of lectures, performances (Handel's Messiah performed by Publick Musick), and Bach's Mass in B Minor (performed by the Eastman Chorale)

As a student at Oberlin, Folan organized a number of musical ensembles and toured with an Early Music chamber choir and instrumental ensemble, with performances in Cleveland, Rochester, NY, Boston, Lancaster, PA and Bethesda, MD. As a Winter Term project, Folan organized and directed a chamber choir that performed mostly works of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

In 1997 Folan was named Sage Chapel Choir Master at Cornell University where he directed the chapel choir in weekly services as well as in two major performances a year, the most notable being the Christmas Lessons and Carols, one of the most popular musical events on campus.

As a freelance conductor, Folan has conducted a number of Bach organizations around the US and in Asia, including the San Francisco Bach Choir and the Bach Choir of Hong Kong.