Thomas Vozzella

Dr. Thomas R. Vozzella, is the Director of Music and Organist at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Missouri. Staff Organist at Community of Christ, Independence, Missouri.  Most recently, he served as the American Choral Directors Association National Repertoire & Resources Chair for Music in Worship. Prior to moving to Kansas City, Dr. Vozzella was Dean of the Black Hills Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and the South Dakota Choral Directors Association R&R Chair for Community Choirs/Music in Worship.

Dr. Vozzella has served as a Music Director/Organist in Massachusetts, Kansas, Missouri, Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and South Dakota since the age of fifteen. In addition to his church appointments, he has taught at institutions of higher education in Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama and Kansas. Most recently, Dr. Vozzella served as an online PhD Mentor in Music and Fine Arts for Walden University.

Choirs under his direction have constantly received superior ratings and have performed for Tennessee ACDA, and received invitations for Kansas KMEA, and Texas ACDA. Thomas has toured as a conductor and organist in 26 states, Washington DC, Italy, Austria, Germany, France, England, Holland, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Spain.

Honors have included performances on NPR’’s Performance Today, the BBC, NBC for the national broadcast service from Church of the Presidents, Quincy, Massachusetts, celebrating the release of American hostages in Iran (1981), Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, Senator Edward “”Teddy”” Kennedy, two performances at The White House by invitation of President and Mrs. George W. Bush, and for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Dr. Vozzella received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of South Carolina with Dr. Larry Wyatt, the Master of Music degree from Northeast Louisiana University (University of Louisiana, Monroe) with the late Dr. Edward Deckard , and the Bachelor of Music degree from Eastern Nazarene College, with Lambert Brandes. In 2000 and 2012, he was a Fellow at the prestigious Conductors Institute of South Carolina, under the direction of Dr. Donald Portnoy. Additional work was completed at the Royal School of Church Music, England, Nazarene Theological Seminary, and The University of Missouri, Kansas City Conservatory of Music with Dr. John Ditto and Dr. John Obetz.

Thomas is an active member in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), American Guild of Organists (AGO), National Association for Music Education (MENC), Conductors Guild and The American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). He has served as a Choral Mentor for MENC, and as a choral judge/clinician in Massachusetts, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, South Dakota, and Missouri.

Alliance, Augsburg, Abingdon, Selah, CanticaNOVA and St. James Music Press publish his compositions and arrangements. He has received five ASCAP Plus Awards for his compositions, was a 2013 Finalist for The American Prize in Choral Conducting, and received First Prize for Organ Performance in the ENC Competition.  Additionally, his biography has appeared in numerous editions of the international Who’s Who in Music, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in The World. He has five recordings to his credit – three recordings as organist, and two as a conductor.