Thomas Cabaniss

Thomas Cabaniss, born in Charleston, S.C., received his BA from Yale University and has been a member of the Juilliard faculty since 1998. He has composed for dance, theater, film, and the concert stage. His orchestral compositions include the double piano concerto Double Rainbow, Come to Play, Drumlines, To Make Words Sing, and Away I Fly. His chamber compositions include One Silken Thread (2014), Tiny Bits of Outrageous Love (2012), and Searching for Kristallnacht (2008). Cabaniss’s choral compositions include Celestial Fire (2013), for the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, and Behold the Star (2003). His operas include Denmark Vesey, The Sandman, and Otoyotoy. His dance commissions include The Reclamation, Noise + Speed, It’s All True, and The Short-Cut. He has composed theater scores for Spoleto Festival USA, Yale Repertory Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, Dallas Theater Center, Center Stage Baltimore, Portland Stage Company, Pearl Theater, Primary Stages, Target Margin Theater, and Juilliard Drama. He is the recipient of an Obie Award (1998), a Drama Desk nomination (1998), an ASCAP Foundation Award, and wrote the score for The Lunch Date, an Academy Award-winning short film (1990).

Cabaniss leads the Lullaby Project at Carnegie Hall, serving young parents in shelters, hospitals, and prisons with collaboratively created songs for their children. He served as education director for the New York Philharmonic and music animateur at the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has written articles for Chamber Music magazine and the Teaching Artist Journal. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, European American Music, G. Schirmer, MusiCreate Publications. He is a member of ASCAP and an associated artist of Target Margin Theater.