About Me

Countertenor Thomas Alaan has performed across the United States as a soloist with dozens of ensembles and orchestras including Alchymy Viols, Ars Antigua, Bella Voce Camerata, Bach Cantata Vespers, Credo, Elgin Master Chorale, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Helios Ensemble, Mountainside Baroque, Musikanten Montana, Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, and Schola Antiqua. He has performed on many regional concert series and festivals including the Boston Early Music Festival, the Bach and Beyond Baroque Early Music Festival in New York, the Wicker Park Festival, and the Bloomington Early Music Festival. He has sung on WGN Radio (Up Late with Patti Vasquez and Nocturnal Journal with Dave Hoekstra) and Chicago Irish Radio, and has interviewed with Early Music America, Huffington Post, and 98.7 WFMT. In 2016, he (re)created the role of Patie in Allan Ramsay's opera, The Gentle Shepherd, last seen in North America in 1798.

Thomas is a national finalist in the Classical Singer Magazine Vocal Competition for emerging professionals, and a national semi-finalist in The American Prize for his interpretation of art song. His recordings include Vivaldi’s solo cantata, Stabat mater dolorosa, for Biretta Books, Haydn’s Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Elgin Master Chorale and Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, and An Appalachian Summer, A Gaelic Summer, and Chicago Stories: The Album with the Bach and Beethoven Experience.

When not singing, Thomas is engaged in teaching, directing, and administration. He served as co-director of the Bach and Beethoven Experience (BBE) for many years, as co-director of OperaWorks™ during its post-pandemic relaunch in 2023, and as co-founder /co-director of The EcoVoice Project. He is a sustainability and climate change educator at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where he ran the internationally acclaimed Summer Institute on Climate and the Environment for 12 years. He teaches Music as a Tool for Environmentalism and Change and The Music and Science Connection in the UIC Honors College, is Associate Conductor and Director of Women’s Schola at Holy Name Cathedral, and moonlights as an occasional saxophonist. Thomas has presented talks at conferences including the Loyola Climate Change Conference, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the Summer Institute on Sustainability and Energy, the Helena Music Teachers Association, The People's Music School, Self Employment in the Arts (SEA) Art Business Entrepreneurship Workshop, Through Next Generation Electrochemistry and ComSciCon-Atlanta, he’s worked with doctoral students and early career post-docs on presentation using opera performance skills.

Thomas received his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Performance from the University of Wisconsin - Madison where he was a Paul Collins Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellow studying with Jim Doing. He received his MA Vocal Pedagogy under renowned author and pedagogue, Joan Wall, at Texas Woman's University, and his BA Music Education from Alderson-Broaddus University. He has studied with Sheri Greenawald, Mark Crayton, Ellen Hargis, Elizabeth Parker, Max von Egmond, Ann Baltz, David Brock, Beverly Hoch, Linda Poetschke, and Lewis Hall. 

Outside of music, he is a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Nutrition Coach. When not performing or in the gym, he can be found feeding his cat, Theobold 😻, shuffling, or playing World of Warcraft.