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This website houses information about Thomas's music and it is the place to learn more, purchase music and recordings and make contact. Feel free to roam around, and please let us know what you think: trc@thomascabaniss.com

THOMAS CABANISS - Composer


Thomas Cabaniss


...was born in Charleston, SC in 1962. He writes for opera, theater, dance, film, and the concert stage. His choral works include Behold the Star, available on New World Records and published by Boosey & Hawkes. Recent works include It's All True (2007) for choreographer Hilary Easton, Three Sabbaths for chorus and chamber orchestra with text by Wendell Berry (2006), music for Hilary Easton's The Short-Cut (2005), and The Sandman, an opera based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann with David Herskovits and Douglas Langworthy (2002).

Theater scores include: Buffalo Gal (Studio Arena Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival); Mamba's Daughters (Target Margin Theater, Spoleto Festival USA); Galileo (Yale Repertory Theater); The Guest Lecturer (George Street Playhouse); A Streetcar Named Desire, A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theater Center); Pericles, The Marriage of Bette & Boo, Twelfth Night (Center Stage, Baltimore); Hard Times, The Hostage, Twelfth Night (Portland Stage, Maine); The American Plan, Egypt, Mother Courage, Measure for Measure, The Venetian Twins, The Barber of Seville, and When Ladies Battle (Off-Broadway).

His concert music has been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Columbia University Bach Society, The Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Lark String Quartet, the Drumfire Percussion Ensemble, and many others.

He has served as Composer-in-Residence and conductor for the American Dance Festival's Young Choreographers & Composers Program, and his dance works have been performed at the American Dance Festival, the Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and Central Park Summerstage.

In 1990 he created the score for The Lunch Date (winner of the Academy Award and Palme D'Or for Best Short Film). Other awards include a 1998 Obie Award and Drama Desk nomination for his score and musical direction for Mamba's Daughters.

He is active in arts education, having served as Director of Education for the New York Chamber Symphony under Gerard Schwarz and the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel. He is currently the Music Animateur of the Philadelphia Orchestra: Christoph Eschenbach, Music Director. Member ASCAP, American Music Center and Target Margin Theater, David Herskovits, Artistic Director.

"Majestic-an ambitious fusion of legit opera and avant-garde experimentation.