TOM SHARPE is an internationally recognized, award-winning composer, performer, and recording artist, and is a sought-out clinician and performer of his own works. He is the director and principal artist of the SHARPE WORLD MUSIC ENSEMBLE and is the drummer for the Grammy award-winning group MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER, as well as with DENNIS DEYOUNG, the legendary singer/songwriter/pianist, formerly of the famed rock group STYX. He has also been called upon to conduct the orchestra for DeYoung's show The Music of Styx with Symphony Orchestra. Tom is a former member of the popular Chicago based group JELLYEYE DRUM THEATRE, and of the CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO.
An alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy, Tom holds the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from DePaul University in Chicago. He has spent years developing his unique style of visually stimulating performance and lyrical composition. A classically trained musician, Tom has blended his orchestral background with world music instrumentation and cinematic imagery to create an experience that invites the listener into the heart of the musical moment - wildly emotional and technically precise, with a gutsy edge of percussive frenzy and tribal ritual.
Tom's debut CD Like Setting Myself on Fire was released to critical acclaim. The title track of the CD was voted Grand Prize Winner - World Music Song of the Year by the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Tom has also been honored and won awards in composition in the USA Songwriting Competition and the Unisong International Songwriting Competition as well as from VH1, Disc Makers, and the Great American Songwriting Contest. He performed the world premiere of Like Setting Myself on Fire at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH and has been featured on PBS and composed/performed the live soundtrack for Dance Chicago's World Rhythms and Dance/International Rhythms series at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago. Tom was commissioned to write a world music ensemble piece that was performed at the National Percussion Festival in Indianapolis in March 2007, and he premiered his first full symphony with the Elmhurst College Choir in April of the same year.
