Bio
Composer/arranger/conductor Gates Thomas has worked with and written for Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, the Lionel Hampton Big Band, Jim Hall, Sadao Watanabe, Choral Chameleon, the Iowa Jazz Composers Orchestra, and the New American Orchestra of Chicago. He is a member of the 2015-16 Fellowship class at the George Washington National Library at Mount Vernon, Virginia, where he undertook research to support the composition of a cantata based on Washington’s Revolutionary War letters. What began as background work for a musical project led him into a second career as a historian and lecturer; his areas of inquiry include 20th century music, the American Revolution, the United States Navy, the city of Davenport, and the recording arts. A native Davenporter, Gates Thomas was based in New York City for 25 years. In October 2020, with the music industry shuttered by the global pandemic, he and his partner Angel Matias returned permanently to Davenport, to be nearer to their families and to the sources and institutions supporting the study of Davenport history. |