Music

Dr. Anderson grew up in the Atlanta area and graduated from Duke University with a major in music. He earned a master’s degree and a doctorate from Florida State University in music history and literature. He studied advanced conducting with Richard Burgin, associate conductor and concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Anderson began his teaching career in 1967 at Western Carolina University but left for a faculty position with DeKalb College (now Perimeter College) later that year. When DeKalb College became a unit of the University System of Georgia, Tom earned tenure and the rank of professor of Music in 1986. He was the department chair of Fine Arts from 1971 until 1996, when he was appointed provost of the Clarkston Campus until his retirement in 1999.

Dr. Anderson was instrumental in establishing the DeKalb Wind Ensemble in 1967 and was its director until 1986. He also conducted 34 productions of the DeKalb Music Theater/DeKalb Opera Theater between 1980 and 1996.

Dr. Anderson became the conductor and music director for the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra in 1978. He brought the orchestra from its inception as a community performing group of DeKalb College to its current position as one of the Atlanta area’s most respected orchestras. Dr. Anderson conducted more than 400 major compositions of orchestral repertoire with some of the music world’s most acclaimed soloists as guest artists in his 27 years at his post.

Dr. Anderson was a founding and lifetime member of the DeKalb Council for the Arts and a former member of the Music Advisory Panel for the Georgia Council for the Arts. He was a former member of the DeKalb International Choral Festival, Arts in Atlanta Project, Board of Directors for the Arts and Business Council of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and the former treasurer and member of the Board of Directors of The Conductors Guild, the largest and most prestigious professional organization for conductors in the world.

Georgia Perimeter College honored Dr. Anderson as its Cole Fellow in 1996 – the most prestigious award the college bestows. He received the Mary Clark Community Arts Award in 2001 from the Decatur Civic Chorus for his contributions to the arts in DeKalb County. He was named a Lexus Leader of the Arts by WABE/WBPA for July 2005.

Anderson has been awarded composition commissions from the West Virginia Arts and Humanities Council, the Music Teachers National Association & Georgia Music Teachers Association and the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra. He was presented with DeKalb College’s President’s Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in 1990 from DeKalb College for his composition “Sonata No. 3, Op. 30 for Alto/Soprano Saxophone & Piano” and frequently receives ASCAP Plus awards. Since his retirement from college teaching in 2004, the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra premiered his “War Chant, Op. 32” in Decatur, GA (June 2009), and The Globe Saxophone Quartet premiered his “Quartet for Saxophones, Op. 37” at the World Saxophone Congress XVI in St. Andrews, Scotland (July 2012).  The U.S premiere of the Quartet was given by the “10th Floor Project” at Georgia State University at the National Association of Composers-USA Conference in November 2014. The DeKalb Symphony Orchestra premiered his “Berceuse & Tango for oboe, alto saxophone & orchestra, Op. 38” on April 28, 2015.

Dr. Anderson is a Professor Emeritus of Music from Georgia State University’s Perimeter College (formerly DeKalb College and Georgia Perimeter College) in Clarkston, Ga, where he taught piano, composition and music theory. He was also the Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts at GPC from 1996-2002.  The Shenandoah University Alumni Association awarded Dr. Anderson the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Award-Lifetime Achievement.

After coming to Georgia in 1976, Dr. Anderson has been an active member of many music organizations, including the Georgia Music Teachers Association. He served as the GMTA president from 1986 to 1988, vice president for program 1979-82, and he served as the chairman of the GMTA Student Composition Contest and the GMTA/MTNA Commissioning Program from 1979 to 1999.  He held a similar position as composition chair for the Southern Division of MTNA, 1988-1990.

From 1979 to 1981, he was also the chairman of the piano division of the Georgia Music Educators Association. Other offices held have included vice president for programs for the Georgia Association of Music Theorists and a board member of the Atlanta Music Club Scholarship Committee and its Vice President in charge of concerts, 1986-88.

Currently, he is a member of The Recording Academy®, National Association of Composers-USA and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Many of Dr. Anderson’s compositions are published and receive numerous performances in the United States and Europe.

Dr. Anderson is the president of ACA Digital Recording, Inc. and is the producer of “The Atlanta Music Scene,” heard weekly over Atlanta’s WABE-FM 90.1. He also produces the “Spivey Soiree” (September-November) and is one of the recording engineers for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra broadcast recordings heard weekly (February-July) on Atlanta’s WABE-FM 90.1, statewide on Georgia Public Broadcasting and nationally on American Public Media’s “Performance Today” and “SymphonyCast.” As a recording engineer and producer, Dr. Anderson’s recording work has been favorably reviewed in Fanfare, American Record Guide, The Atlanta Audio Society Newsletter, Atlanta 30306 and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  He won the 1990 National Public Radio Lucien Wulsin Award for the Best National Performance-Small Ensemble for his recording of the King’s Singers at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall.  During the Atlanta Olympics, he was the recording engineer for “Performance Today’s” CD “Spirit of ‘96.” ACA Digital Recording now has more than  127 releases of classical chamber music, solo recitals, choral works and traditional jazz being distributed nationally by Albany Music Distributors with downloads distributed through The Orchard.  The most recent release he engineered was for the vocal ensemble Chanticleer “The Gypsy in My Soul” on Chanticleer Records from a live concert given at Spivey Hall in Georgia.