Our Organist and Master of Choir

Tom Bailey hails from Virginia , a baby boomer born in a barracks hospital in Fort Lee. As an army brat Tom experienced much of the world at an early age – several years in Japan and Germany by the time he was nine. Stateside he lived in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and Columbus, Georgia, finally ending up at the approximate place where he was born, Hopewell, Virginia.

Tom “interrupted” his studies as an organ performance major at Virginia Commonwealth University , to take off for Vienna , Austria for five years of study with Anton Heiller, a renowned Bach authority. In addition to organ studies, he developed a thirst for opera, thanks to many nights in standing room at the Vienna Staatsoper. Upon returning to Virginia Tom founded the Opera Alliance of Richmond, coaching singers and conducting operatic works with orchestra such as Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio , Strauss' Die Fledermaus , in addition to scenes from Tosca, Nabucco, Il Trovatore, Aida, and Fidelio.

After a stint as interim Organist Choirmaster at St. James Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, Tom became confident of his calling as a church musician. He became Organist Choirmaster of Christ Church, Oyster Bay where he installed the critically acclaimed tracker organ by Hellmuth Wolff. During those Oyster Bay years and the few that followed at Centenary United Methodist Church in Richmond , he began to examine his ministry which led to his enrollment at Virginia Theological Seminary where he earned an MDiv, unusual for a lay person, but an exception the seminary was willing to make.

Following seminary Tom started his ministry at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Reston, Virginia , a church meeting in a multi purpose room with no pipe organ. As part of a dedicated staff with a visionary rector, when he left 6 years later, a substantial stone church had been built, and a 4-manual Aeolian Skinner organ was relocated from St. Paul 's Episcopal in Richmond to St. Anne's.

In 1999 Tom moved to New York again, living in Brooklyn and serving as Organist and Choirmaster at St. Paul's Episcopal in Carroll Gardens, a landmark building rich in the Anglo-catholic tradition. He also worked at the national headquarters of the American Guild of Organists as coordinator of Examinations and Competitions.

A vibrant music program at Washington Street United Methodist Church in Old Town, Alexandria tempted Tom back to Virginia . There he conducted the masterwork series, using the exemplary choir with orchestra in Handel's Coronation Anthems, Vierne's Messe Solenelle, Kodaly's Missa Brevis, Pinkham's Christmas Cantata, Ron Nelson's Christmas Story, and Mozart's Requiem with an orchestra of period instruments.

In recent years he has focused on the music of Olivier Messiaen, playing Nativité du Seigneur at several venues including, St. Mary the Virgin, New York City, and Neue Dom, Linz, Austria; Messe de la Pentecôte at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, and the Monastery in Schlägl, Austria. In May of 2007 he returned to Schlägl to play Messiaen's L'Ascension.

At St. Peter's by-the-Sea, Tom stands on the rich foundation and hard work of previous musicians – Beulah Winegar, Robert Knox Kennedy, Mark McNulty, Mark Engelhardt, Cynthia Holden, and Nigel Potts.

For further information, see www.thomasleebailey.com