Biography

Tom grew up in Iowa and was naturally drawn to the piano. He began lessons at the age of five and continued them into high school. Tom recalls being kind of a lazy student though as he became much more interested in playing radio pop songs by ear than reading from sheet music. During his teens, he became interested in electric pianos, organs and synthesizer keyboards. His weekends and money were spent in local music stores.

Tom moved to Colorado shortly after graduating from business school and an unfulfilling sales job. "When you grow up in Iowa you are not exactly encouraged to run off and join the circus. I ended up becoming a musician after graduating from business school. That should tell you how much I learned in business school," Tom jokes. "Initially, I thought I would just have some fun on the weekends with it. But pretty soon I quit my job and moved to Colorado when offered a steady nightclub gig. It didn't take me too long to realize that there was nothing else I'd rather do. I've been at it ever since."

Tom performs a broad variety of popular music from an extensive and ever-growing song list. His repertoire consists primarily of Standards and Jazz classics, Pop and Rock favorites, Country & Western, Folk, Blues and Sing-along staples. In addition he'll try to field your requests. "I'm not really sure how many songs I know anymore", Tom says. "If I've heard it a few times I can usually pick it up pretty quickly by ear. Fortunately, I seem to be able to remember the words pretty quickly too. I do my best to keep it all up in my head so that I can focus upon the people in the room."

In between songs, telling jokes and bantering with the audience he'll steer an interactive conversation of musical trivia destined to determine an eclectic set list never to be repeated again. "I'm not much for set lists," Tom says. "You can set your watch by what some performers play at a given time of evening. I like to keep things pretty loose and spontaneous."

What is Tom's favorite song? "It really depends upon the flow of the evening. I look at the room throughout the evening and play songs that I think will resonate with the crowd. I also ask for their requests." I get my satisfaction from being able to entertain all kinds of people with all kinds of music. I want to play something that will make THAT couple over there come in again tomorrow night…and something for those folks over there too! Those are my favorite songs tonight."