Tom Larson is Assistant Professor of Composition (Emerging Media and Digital Arts) at the Glenn Korff School of Music at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In addition to authoring The History of Rock and Roll, he is also the author of Modern Sounds: The Artistry of Contemporary Jazz, and The History and Tradition of Jazz, both published by Kendall Hunt Publishing. His first CD of original jazz compositions, Flashback, was released in 2003. He has studied jazz piano with Dean Earle, Fred Hersch, Bruce Barth, and Kenny Werner, jazz arranging with Herb Pomeroy and music composition with Robert Beadell and Randall Snyder. In addition to performing with jazz ensembles throughout the Midwest and East Coast, he has performed with Paul Shaffer, Victor Lewis, Dave Stryker, Bobby Shew, Claude Williams, Bo Diddley, Jackie Allen, the Omaha Symphony, the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra, the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, and the University of Nebraska Faculty Jazz Ensemble.
Tom also writes and produces music for documentary films; among his credits are the scores for three documentaries for the PBS American Experience series (a production of WGBH-TV, Boston): In the White Man’s Image, Around the World in 72 Days, and Monkey Trial. He also scored the documentaries Willa Cather: The Road Is All for WNET-TV (New York), Ashes from the Dust for the PBS series NOVA, and the PBS specials Most Honorable Son and In Search of the Oregon Trail. Tom has written extensively for the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, and the University of Illinois Asian Studies Department. His music has also been used on the CBS-TV series The District. His commercial credits include music written for Phoenix-based Music Oasis, L.A.-based Music Animals, Chicago-based Pfeifer Music Partners and General Learning Communications, and advertising agencies in Nebraska.
A Lincoln native, Tom received a Bachelor of Music in Composition in 1977 from Berklee College of Music in Boston and a Master of Music in Composition
in 1985 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also an avid runner, and completed the Boston Marathon in 2005, 2006, and 2007. More information on Tom Larson can be found at tomlarsonmusic.net.
