Thomas Giles

Thomas Giles (musician, 2×4) has been described as “breathtaking” (New York Music Daily), “insanely clever” (ClassicFM, United Kingdom), and “full of crystalline clarity” (Südkurier, Germany), and performs the music of our time with tireless curiosity, imagination, and conviction. To date, Giles has premiered more than 250 new works—many of which are dedicated to him. He has enjoyed working closely with leading composers from Meredith Monk to Charles Wuorinen to the American indie-rock duo Wye Oak. Recent premieres include works by Augusta Read Thomas, Chris Dench, and Nicola LeFanu. His growing body of solo repertoire reveals a fascination with simultaneity and the multilimbic capacities of a single wind performer.

Giles is a founding member of Telos Consort—a flexible new-music quintet comprised of two saxophones, violin, cello, and piano. He is a regular guest performer with top ensembles including the Grammy-winning Experiential Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, London Royal Opera Co., New York City Opera Orchestra, Opera Parallèle, Contemporaneous, and ensembles Signal, MISE-EN, Échappé, Metropolis, and the internationally renowned PRISM and Raschér Saxophone Quartets. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Constellation Chicago, SFJAZZ, and abroad at Bachfest Leipzig, Heidelberg Kulturzentrum, Münster Musikhochschule, the Szczecin International Saxophone Festival, the Utrecht Bartholomeus Gasthuis, and the Cité dela Musique de Strasbourg. In 2022, Giles was a prizewinner at the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg International Saxophone Competition.

A devoted teacher, Giles is Artist-Teacher of Saxophone at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA. He has been a guest on campuses across the nation, including at the Juilliard School, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, the Hartt School, and UC Davis. Giles has held residencies at the Arts Academy of Szczecin (Poland), Landesgymnasium für Musik in Dresden (Germany), and as orchestral saxophonist for the National Music Festival, 2013–17.