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Thomas Stumpf was born in 1950 in Shanghai, grew up in Hong Kong, studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, lived in London, came to the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) first as student, then as teacher, and has become one of Boston’s best-known and most versatile musicians. In 2012, NEC honored him with an Outstanding Alumni Award.
His career as a solo and collaborative pianist has spanned four continents, and he is featured on 7 CDs. His repertoire ranges from Mozart (whose complete piano works he performed at Boston University in a series of 9 recitals) to contemporary composers (he has given the world premiere of many solo and ensemble works). He has performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Boston Pops Orchestra (under Arthur Fiedler), Alea III (under Theodore Antoniou) and numerous other ensembles. His colleagues onstage have included singers Edith Mathis, Rita Streich, D'Anna Fortunato, Joan Heller, and Jayne West, and instrumentalists Richard Stoltzman, Jack Brymer, Yuri Mazurkevich, Arturo Delmoni, Walter Trampler, Scott Woolweaver, Michael Zaretzky, Emmanuel Feldman, and Leslie Parnas. He has recorded several CDs with sopranos Joan Heller and Jean Danton. His first solo recording - a 2-CD album entitled "Reflections on Time and Mortality" - was released on the Albany label on February 1, 2017. A second solo album, devoted to the piano music of John McDonald, was recorded in July 2019.
He was co-founder and Artistic Director of Prism Opera, for which he conducted and directed Britten’s “Turn of the Screw” and “Rape of Lucretia,” Holst's "Savitri," Vaughan-Williams' "Riders to the Sea" and Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" (in his own adaptation and translation).
For twenty-one years he was Director of Music at Follen Church (Unitarian-Universalist) in Lexington MA, where he conducted choral repertoire ranging from Bach’s Magnificat to the Mozart and Fauré Requiems to the Sacred Concerts of Duke Ellington. He also conducted the Follen Youth Choir, with whom he directed a Gilbert and Sullivan production every June. His experience at Follen led to his first book: a collection of essays entitled A Sounding Mirror: Courage and Music in Our Time, published by Higganum Hill Books in 2005.
His compositions have appeared on programs throughout the U.S. as well as in Russia and Germany; he won the Kahn Award for his music theater project “Dark Lady,” one section of which was recorded by Joan Heller for the Albany label. Choral works of his have been performed in New York City by the Pharos Music Project, C4 , and the New York Virtuoso Singers under Harold Rosenbaum; by the Women's Chorale of Oberlin College; and in Boston by the Master Singers, Triad: Boston Choral Collective, the choirs of the Lexington and Newton High Schools, and by the Tufts University choirs under Jamie Kirsch. Most recently, his two one-act operas "The Nightingale and the Rose" and "The Happy Prince" were performed by the Tufts University Opera Ensemble.
Stumpf also has a distinguished career as teacher and lecturer. He has taught at the New England Conservatory, Boston University (where he was Chair of the Collaborative Piano Department) and UMassLowell (where he was Head of the Keyboard Area). He is presently on the faculty of Tufts University as piano teacher, chamber music coach, Music Director of the Opera Ensemble, and staff pianist. He has given masterclasses at many colleges and conservatories in the U.S. He has also been a regular guest recitalist and teacher at the Musikschule in Mannheim, Germany; he has taught summer courses in chamber music at the Montanea Festival in Switzerland and in art song at the Akademie Schloss Henfenfeld outside Nürnberg, Germany. With Joan Heller he has co-taught masterclasses for singers and pianists at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, and the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg.
Stumpf is also a nationally-ranked competitive Scrabble player.
His career as a solo and collaborative pianist has spanned four continents, and he is featured on 7 CDs. His repertoire ranges from Mozart (whose complete piano works he performed at Boston University in a series of 9 recitals) to contemporary composers (he has given the world premiere of many solo and ensemble works). He has performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Boston Pops Orchestra (under Arthur Fiedler), Alea III (under Theodore Antoniou) and numerous other ensembles. His colleagues onstage have included singers Edith Mathis, Rita Streich, D'Anna Fortunato, Joan Heller, and Jayne West, and instrumentalists Richard Stoltzman, Jack Brymer, Yuri Mazurkevich, Arturo Delmoni, Walter Trampler, Scott Woolweaver, Michael Zaretzky, Emmanuel Feldman, and Leslie Parnas. He has recorded several CDs with sopranos Joan Heller and Jean Danton. His first solo recording - a 2-CD album entitled "Reflections on Time and Mortality" - was released on the Albany label on February 1, 2017. A second solo album, devoted to the piano music of John McDonald, was recorded in July 2019.
He was co-founder and Artistic Director of Prism Opera, for which he conducted and directed Britten’s “Turn of the Screw” and “Rape of Lucretia,” Holst's "Savitri," Vaughan-Williams' "Riders to the Sea" and Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" (in his own adaptation and translation).
For twenty-one years he was Director of Music at Follen Church (Unitarian-Universalist) in Lexington MA, where he conducted choral repertoire ranging from Bach’s Magnificat to the Mozart and Fauré Requiems to the Sacred Concerts of Duke Ellington. He also conducted the Follen Youth Choir, with whom he directed a Gilbert and Sullivan production every June. His experience at Follen led to his first book: a collection of essays entitled A Sounding Mirror: Courage and Music in Our Time, published by Higganum Hill Books in 2005.
His compositions have appeared on programs throughout the U.S. as well as in Russia and Germany; he won the Kahn Award for his music theater project “Dark Lady,” one section of which was recorded by Joan Heller for the Albany label. Choral works of his have been performed in New York City by the Pharos Music Project, C4 , and the New York Virtuoso Singers under Harold Rosenbaum; by the Women's Chorale of Oberlin College; and in Boston by the Master Singers, Triad: Boston Choral Collective, the choirs of the Lexington and Newton High Schools, and by the Tufts University choirs under Jamie Kirsch. Most recently, his two one-act operas "The Nightingale and the Rose" and "The Happy Prince" were performed by the Tufts University Opera Ensemble.
Stumpf also has a distinguished career as teacher and lecturer. He has taught at the New England Conservatory, Boston University (where he was Chair of the Collaborative Piano Department) and UMassLowell (where he was Head of the Keyboard Area). He is presently on the faculty of Tufts University as piano teacher, chamber music coach, Music Director of the Opera Ensemble, and staff pianist. He has given masterclasses at many colleges and conservatories in the U.S. He has also been a regular guest recitalist and teacher at the Musikschule in Mannheim, Germany; he has taught summer courses in chamber music at the Montanea Festival in Switzerland and in art song at the Akademie Schloss Henfenfeld outside Nürnberg, Germany. With Joan Heller he has co-taught masterclasses for singers and pianists at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, and the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg.
Stumpf is also a nationally-ranked competitive Scrabble player.
