The music of Zachariah Thomas magnifies the wonder and strangeness of our world, and revels in the understanding that hope is as real as the despair.  His performers have included the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Sonar New Music Ensemble, the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Symphony, the Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra, the UMBC New Music Ensemble, and bassist Yoshiaki Horiguchi. Mr. Thomas was a finalist in the chamber music division and semi-finalist in the choral music division of The American Prize in Composition for 2019. He received the University of Maryland’s excellence in music award in 2017. Mr. Thomas’ works were featured on WMBC radio and the Fresh Inc Festival in 2016, and the Atlantic Music Festival and Carroll Community College Alumni Composers Concert in 2015. In 2013, he was commissioned by the Oak Chapel United Methodist church for a new sacred cantata.  He won third prize in the National League of American Pen Women’s Young Composer Competition in 2010. His music was featured in the 2010 Maryland State Music Teacher’s Association Composer’s Circle.

Alternate temperament in both very old and very new music form the core of Mr Thomas’ current research interests. In 2016, he presented a lecture recital on harpsichord at the University of Maryland Baltimore County examining historical tuning methods and their significance to the music of Johan Jacob Froberger and Louis Couperin. As part of his research funded by the 2015 UMBC Undergraduate Research Award, Mr. Thomas developed a software patch to enact dynamic intonation on any MIDI capable keyboard instrument. Mr. Thomas received the same award and funding again in 2016 for the study of performer/composer communication techniques.

Mr. Thomas holds a Master of Music in Music Composition degree from Bowling Green State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition and Bachelor of Music in Performance/Musicology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Currently residing in Tallahassee Fl with his wife and daughter, Mr. Thomas dabbles in a continual study of insect and arachnid life, often scanning the ground for its underrated inhabitants.