“unsurpassable as a Bach interpreter” ... “Thomas' direction seems just right, capturing the humanity of the music ... there is no higher praise for Bach performance” - Fanfare
“Throughout the performance conductor Jeffrey Thomas drew every ounce of expression from the ensemble.” “What he is interested in is shaping the delicate rise and fall of phrases, never through histrionics…His conducting shows a mastery of shading and noble proportion.” - Classical Sonoma
“Jeffrey Thomas draws crisp, vital playing from the ace baroque instrumentalists of American Bach Soloists, who provide galvanizing vigor but also caress the gut strings of their period instruments with unusual beauty.” - Opera News
Jeffrey Thomas has brought thoughtful, meaningful, and informed perspectives to his performances as Artistic Director and Conductor of the American Bach Soloists for 35 years. Recognized worldwide as one of the foremost interpreters of the music of Bach and the Baroque, he continues to inspire audiences and performers alike through his keen insights into the passions behind musical expression. Fanfare Magazine has praised his series of Bach recordings, stating that “Thomas’ direction seems just right, capturing the humanity of the music … there is no higher praise for Bach performance.”
Maestro Thomas is also an avid exponent of contemporary music, and has conducted the premieres of new operas, including David Conte’s Gift of the Magi and Firebird Motel, and premiered song cycles of several composers. He performed lieder recitals at the Smithsonian, song recitals at various universities, and appeared with his own vocal chamber music ensemble, L’Aria Viva. He was also a popular classical music radio host for more than a decade.
Educated at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School of Music, with further studies in English literature at Cambridge University, he has taught at the Amherst Early Music Workshop, Oberlin College Conservatory Baroque Performance Institute, San Francisco Early Music Society, and Southern Utah Early Music Workshops, presented master classes at the Eastman School of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, SUNY at Buffalo, Swarthmore College, and Washington University, been on the faculty of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, and was artist-in-residence at the University of California, where he is now Professor Emeritus of Music in the Department of Music at UC Davis, where he held the Barbara K. Jackson Chair in Conducting. He was a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow from 2001 to 2006; and the Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a prestigious Residency at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center at Villa Serbelloni for April 2007, to work on his manuscript, “Handel’s Messiah: A Life of Its Own.”
Before devoting all of his time to conducting, he was one of the first recipients of the San Francisco Opera Company’s prestigious Adler Fellowships. Praised by The New York Times for his “fervent declamation, brilliant coloratura and a voice of Italianate warmth,” and cited by The Wall Street Journal as “a superstar among oratorio tenors,” Mr. Thomas’ extensive discography of vocal music includes dozens of recordings of major works for Decca, EMI, Erato, Koch International Classics, Denon, Harmonia Mundi, Smithsonian, Newport Classics, and Arabesque.