Thomas Cabaniss COMPOSER
Thomas Cabaniss is a composer for dance, theater, film, and the concert stage. Orchestra: Double Rainbow (double piano concerto for Michael and Jessica Chow Shinn); Come To Play, Drumlines, To Make Words Sing, Away I Fly (Carnegie Hall commissions for Link Up educational concerts performed by over 120 orchestras across the US and internationally); Chamber: Trinity Pass (for two pianos), String Quartets #1 - #6, One Silken Thread (for cello and piano four hands), Tiny Bits of Outrageous Love (piano four hands), Searching for Kristallnacht (mixed ensemble and singers). Choral: My Song Is a Fire (cantata for soloists, chorus and orchestra), Three Sabbaths (for 2 oboes, string orchestra and SATB chorus); Watchman, Heaven Is, Celestial Fire (for the Young People's Chorus of NYC), Behold the Star (New York Concert Singers; New World Records). Operas: Denmark Vesey, The Sandman, The German Refugee, Otoyotoy, Camille’s Rainbow. Dance: The Reclamation, Noise + Speed, It's All True, and The Short-Cut. Theater scores for Spoleto Festival USA, Yale Repertory Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, Dallas Theater Center, Center Stage Baltimore, Portland Stage Company, Pearl Theater, Primary Stages, Target Margin Theater, Juilliard Drama Division. Obie Award, 1998; Drama Desk nomination, 1998; ASCAP Foundation Award; score for The Lunch Date, an Academy Award-winning short film, 1990.
He helped to create the Lullaby Project at Carnegie Hall, serving young parents in shelters, hospitals and prisons with collaboratively created songs for their children. He co-founded the vocal improvisation ensemble Moving Star, which produces interactive singing experiences for young people and adults. He has been teaching at Juilliard in the Dance Division since 1998 and in the Music Division since 2007. He served as education director for the New York Philharmonic and Music Animateur at the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has written articles for Chamber Music Magazine and the Teaching Artist Journal. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, European American Music, G. Schirmer, and MusiCreate Publications. He is a member of ASCAP and an associated artist of Target Margin Theater.
