Chadwick Thomas is a clarinetist and conductor based in Hartford, Connecticut. He appears as a chamber musician throughout the United States, with orchestras in the Northeast, and has played at major venues on the East Coast such as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Thomas has performed with the Greater Bridgeport, Hartford, and Ridgefield Symphonies, Symphony in C, and is a member of Wa Sinfonietta in New York City. As an avid chamber musician, he has performed with leading artists including Vadim Gluzman, Donald Palma, James VanDemark, Robert Black, Lucy Shelton, and Ayako Oshima. For the past several summers, he has been a musician of the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival in Alabama. Thomas performs regularly as a recitalist with pianist Yujin Lee and is the clarinetist of the Ecor Quartet. After winning the Paranov Concerto Competition, he performed the Clarinet Concerto by Jean Françaix with the Hartt Orchestra in February 2023. Other awards include first prizes in the NOLA Chamber Fest Competition, prizes from the International Clarinet Association's Clareidoscope Competition, and special prizes from Peabody Conservatory and Louisiana State University School of Music.
As a conductor, Thomas has led the Foot in the Door Ensemble, Hartt Orchestra, and Atlantic Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble. He served as assistant conductor for a performance of Neely Bruce's The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets at Wesleyan University in fall 2025.
Thomas is also an active educator. He is adjunct faculty at The Hartt School, where he teaches the orchestral repertoire class for woodwinds. He is also instructor of clarinet at Hartt Community Division, Cheshire Academy, and Wesleyan University. Additionally, Thomas spent three summers on the faculty of Interlochen Arts Camp, where he taught clarinet and chamber music and performed in numerous faculty recitals. He directed the Hartt Clarinet Ensemble for three years, leading to the ensemble’s performance at ClarinetFest 2025 in Fort Worth, TX. Thomas’s other conference performances include the U.S. Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium and the Women Composers Festival of Hartford.
Originally from Eastern North Carolina, Thomas holds degrees from the Peabody Institute (BM), the University of Michigan (MM), and The Hartt School at the University of Hartford (DMA). His clarinet teachers include Ayako Oshima, Charles Neidich, Chad Burrow, Daniel Gilbert, Alexander Fiterstein, Deborah Chodacki, and Douglas Moore-Monroe. He studied conducting with Glen Adsit and Edward Cumming.