Thomas Brown, PhD

Professor Emeritus of Music

1933-2017
Academic Area: Organ

Degrees

PhD in Theory, humanities; organ, Florida State University  (Dissertation plus recital)
MM in Music Literature; organ, University of Michigan (Organ recital in lieu of thesis)        
BM in Sacred Music: organ, voice, Stetson University
Summer Study: Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, NYC (organ)
University of Vienna, Austria and St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, (organ)

Profile

Thomas Brown, PhD, taught organ, several graduate and undergraduate courses, and for sixteen years conducted the select TWU Concert Choir. He was a former acting chair of the department and music program director. A church musician for many years, he was active as organist/director, recitalist, adjudicator, organ/choral clinician, and workshop leader. His organ teachers included Robert Noehren, Gustav Leonhardt, Wilhelm Mueck (St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna), Ramona Beard, and Ruth Carr. Brown was the fourth organist to perform on the noted Fisk organ in the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, and has presented numerous recitals in the South and Southwest and for various chapters of the American Guild of Organists. He directed the 1989 installation of the 85 rank, 4-manual Redman Organ in TWU’s Margo Jones Performance Hall. He holds a special interest in organ registration pedagogy.

Brown served on the executive committees of the Dallas and Fort Worth AGO Chapters and is a past officer of these and other chapters. For ten years he directed the annual TWU Summer Workshop for Church Musicians, and for twelve Christmas seasons served as the Executive Director of the Denton Festival of Carols, earning him a citation for outstanding community service from the Greater Denton Arts Council.

Brown’s more recent activities included a Special Events Series recital at St. Stephen Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth and as organist for Haydn’s “Little Organ Mass” with the TWU Chamber Singers. In addition to his annual faculty recitals, he performed on the TWU Gala Holiday Concerts and with the TWU Wind Ensemble in 2007 and 2008.

In 2008 Texas Woman’s University honored Brown with the Humphries Award, for thirty-nine years of dedication and service to the university.