PC Music Department Faculty Concert Thursday September 30

Dr. Richard Thomas is Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of String Studies at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, where he teaches cello, bass, chamber music, and directs the Presbyterian College Chamber Orchestra. He is also on the faculty of the Laurens County Academy of Music and is Adjunct Instructor of Cello at Lander University in Greenwood, SC. Thomas has lectured, taught, and performed in China, Japan, Taiwan, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and throughout the United States.

He is a former faculty member of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the University of South Carolina Aiken, the Universidad del Cauca and Universidad del Valle (Colombia, South America), the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica (Santo Domingo, DR), the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and the Wilmington Academy of Music. From 1999-2008 he was String Department Head at Camp Encore-Coda in Sweden, Maine.

Thomas held positions in the cello sections of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia (Bogotá, Colombia), the Orquesta Sinfónica del Valle (Cali, Colombia), and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (Santo Domingo, DR). He was Principal Cellist of the Wilmington Symphony and Tallis Chamber Orchestra in North Carolina, the Irving Symphony and Garland Symphony in Texas, the Encore-Coda Chamber Orchestra in Maine, and was Assistant Principal of the South Carolina Philharmonic, the East Texas Symphony, and played in the Dallas Lyric Opera Orchestra. Thomas was also a member of Greater Anderson Musical Arts Consortium (GAMAC) in Anderson, SC and played double bass in the Anderson Symphony.

Andrew Sheffield, director of the Laurens County Academy of Music and adjunct instructor at Presbyterian College and Newberry College, received his bachelor of music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and his master of music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. His principal teachers include Frank Weinstock and Robert Weirich, with additional studies with Eteri Andjapridze and Maurice Hinson and collaborative coaching from Donna Loewy. Having made his concerto debut at age 16 with the Macon Symphony Orchestra, Andrew has performed extensively as both a soloist and a collaborator, including at the International Festival-Institute at Round Top (TX), the Kansas City Cello Clinic, and the International Clarinet Society’s ClarinetFest; in masterclasses with renowned pianists Richard Goode and David Korevaar; and as a featured artist of the St. Louis Artist Presentation Society. In addition to his work at PC and Newberry, Andrew accompanies the Laurens County Chorale.