Peter Thomsen

Peter W. Thomsen is a native New Yorker, raised in Nyack, a suburb of New York City. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Voice and Music Education from the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York. While in Potsdam Mr. Thomsen studied acting and was in many stage productions of musical theater and opera. He was also drummer and singer for Double Axel, a rock band still actively performing.Mr. Thomsen began teaching and performing in New York, but spent the greatest portion of his career as a music teacher and fine arts administrator in the Longmeadow Public Schools. He began building the Longmeadow Music Program by directing many musical theater productions the 1970s and 1980s. At the time of his retirement, the vocal program that he helped to build at Longmeadow High School numbered almost 250 students. Longmeadow’s music program has received three Grammy Signature School Awards. His Men’s Chorus was known as one of the largest in the eastern United States. His select Lyrics and I Cantori choirs traveled throughout the eastern US, Canada, Italy, Austria and Hungary and performed venues like Carnegie Hall and Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood. All of the Longmeadow choirs were often invited to perform at conferences and were recognized for excellence with Gold medals at MICCA Festivals. Mr. Thomsen started one of the first music technology programs in the state. He taught vocal music and music technology at many of the colleges and universities in Massachusetts. In 1985, MMEA awarded Mr. Thomsen one of the first Lowell Mason awards for outstanding contributions to music education. In 2008 the Town of Longmeadow chose Peter Thomsen as Citizens of the Year.Mr. Thomsen is a professional singer, guitarist, keyboardist, percussionist, as well as a private vocal coach, voice teacher, guest conductor and recording engineer. Through his work at Shenendoah Concervatory he has just become a certified Level III teacher of Somatic Voicework®The LoVetri Method. His voice studio serves singers from 7 to 70 years of age. Many of the groups and singers with which he has worked have performed on Broadway, TV and are recording nationally. Recently, Mr. Thomsen was cast a Javert in the Les Miserable production of Exit 7 Players in Ludlow.MA Thomsen has created corporate performing ensembles as music director and performer for AYP Conferences in Albany, New York, Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah and will be performing for AYP in Albany in February. The Thomsens also provide recording and video services for those who need recordings to support the college application process.Mr. Thomsen lives in Longmeadow with his wife Abby. She holds degrees in piano performance from Ohio State University and the University of Akron. She has served on the faculty at the University of Akron, and the Harte School of Music at the University of Harford. Mrs. Thomsen has an active private piano studio and plays piano professionally as a solo performer.