Thomas Foster

A long-time student of the late, world-renowned guitar teacher, Aaron Shearer, Thomas earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts under the direction of Aaron Shearer and Gerald Klickstein (author of the classic book Musicians Way), and his Master of Music degree from Appalachian State University under the direction of Douglass James.

Thomas has performed in guitar master classes throughout the U.S. and Mexico with Pepe Romero, David Russell, John Williams, the Assad Brothers, Ricardo Cobo, John Holmquist, Steve Aron, David Leisner, and Dusan Bogdanovic just to name a few. He has studied world music, flamenco, improvisation and jazz with Thomas Yoder, Tomas Janzon, David Oakes, Richard Smith, and Adam Del Monte. In 2004, Thomas was one of four players selected to perform for John Williams at the Merida, Mexico Guitar Festival.

Currently, he is completing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music under the instruction of Brian Head. He is pursuing doctoral minors in the areas of music theory and ethnomusicology (world music). He has studied guitar performance with James Smith, Brian Head, Pepe Romero, Scott Tennant and Bill Kanengiser. He teaches private guitar lessons in Los Angeles and surrounding communities and has developed a unique music curriculum for students with Autism.