Thomas Heinrich, cello

Thomas Heinrich has been a member of the Colorado Symphony since 1997. He has also performed as principal cellist of the Grand Teton Music Festival orchestra (2001-08) and the American Sinfonietta (1997-2003), and assistant principal cellist of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein (1990). While Thomas was assistant principal cellist of The Santa Fe Opera Orchestra (2009-18), The SFO performed and recorded Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, for which it won a Grammy for Best Opera Recording. 

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Thomas made his solo debut with the Vermont Symphony at age sixteen. At the Bellingham Festival of Music, he appeared with Janos Starker and the American Sinfonietta performing the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto. In Colorado, Thomas has performed as soloist with the Littleton, Lone Tree, and Aurora symphonies and the Up Close and Musical chamber orchestra. He has also performed at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains (Steamboat), June in Buffalo, and the Bellingham Festival of Music. 

Thomas is a founding member of the Boulder Piano Quartet (BPQ), former ensemble-in-residence at the Boulder Public Library, and Trio Cordilleras (TC). Recordings include Lowell Liebermann Quintets with BPQ and Jon Manasse (Koch Int’L), and Las Puertas del Tiempo: The Music of Luis Jorge Gonzalez and Tango: Body and Soul with TC (Meridian). 

Thomas’ performances have been broadcast across North America on CBC Radio’s Chamber Music at Noon, NPR’s Performance Today, and CPR’s Colorado Spotlight. As a chamber musician, Thomas has collaborated with Ida Kavafian, David Krakauer, Elmar Oliveira, the Cavani and Miami String Quartets, and members of the Takacs Quartet. He has worked with composers Fred Bretschger, Jon Deak, Phillip Glass, Luis Jorge Gonzalez, Clark W. Ross, and R. Murray Schafer.

Thomas has been a faculty member of Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Music. His principal mentors and teachers include Leopold Teraspulsky, Alan Harris, and Aldo Parisot.

Thomas is also an avid mountain climber, mountain biker, birder and photographer.He often combines these passions, photographing birds he tracks down by pedaling sometimes long distances. In January 2023, Thomas launched a self-propelled Big Year within Colorado, biking 5,400 miles and finding 310 bird species by the end of the year.Thomas’ photos have been published in several birding journals and newsletters as well as The Raptor Guide of Southern Africa. He displays his photos in web galleries at http://www.pbase.com/birdercellist. Other interests include mountain biking, backpacking, mountaineering, and rock climbing. Thomas has climbed all of Colorado’s 14ers, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and many peaks in the Tetons and North Cascades. Thomas lives in Boulder with his wife and their two children.