Thomas Beard, cello

 

Thomas Beard grew up in Wingham Ontario and began playing cello at the age of 8 in the Kincardine Summer Music Festival. In his early years, he received numerous awards and scholarships at regional and provincial festivals in Ontario.

 

Thomas’ orchestral training began as cellist in the Grey-Bruce Orchestra, principal cellist in the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Youth Orchestra and as a member the Stratford Symphony Orchestra.

 

In 2009 and 2010 Thomas was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, under the direction of Alain Trudel and Jacques Lacombe, touring across Canada and recording albums at McGill University each year. The NYOC’s 2009 recording was nominated for a Juno in the ‘Classical Album of the Year’ category. Winner of the Stratford Concerto Competition in 2011, with the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto in A minor, Thomas also placed second that year with Strauss’ Romance in D minor for Harp and Cello with his sister, Emily Beard, on the harp.

Thomas’ chamber music experience includes collaborating with numerous classical artists such as Philip Chiu, Peter Allen, Marc Djokic, Jasmine Schnarr, Kati Gleiser, and Caroline Leonardelli, and with Jazz guitarist and Juno award winner Mike Rud.

 

Thomas was recently part of a string quartet that won the McGill Chamber Music Competition 2014 that took them to Austria to take part in the Salzburger Kammermusikfest where they received coachings from Wolfgang Redik and Paul Roczek at the Mozarteum. Thomas also enjoys playing a variety of different genres including celtic, pop, and folk and is co-founder of ‘north country towers’, a indie/folk duo based in Montreal with singer/songwriter and guitarist Caleb Smith.

 

Thomas has just completed his Artist Diploma at McGill University, after completing his Bachelor of Music Honors Cello Performance (also at McGill University), both under the excellent tutelage of Yegor Dyachkov. Part of his orchestral training at McGill includes playing as principal and section cellist with the McGill Symphony Orchestra under the artistic direction of Alexis Hauser.      

 

Thomas currently plays with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra for the 2015/16 concert season, as principal cellist, under the direction of Sabatino Vacca, as well as section cellist with ‘Pronto Musica!’, a non-profit orchestra training program based in Montreal, Quebec.