 Tom Trenney is Director of Music Ministries and Organist at First Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Michigan, where he directs five choirs and Many Voices…One Song, an extensive music outreach program. Tom serves as artistic director for the Ovations! Concert Series, the Birmingham-First Chamber Choir, an annual church music workshop, and a seasonal series of Summer Sings. Tom completed two graduate degrees in 2002, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, studying organ performance with David Higgs and choral conducting with Dr. William Weinert. He holds the Bachelor of Music Degree in Organ Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied organ and church music with Todd Wilson.
A native of Perry, Ohio, Tom began piano study with Margaret Syroney at the age of four and began organ lessons with Anne Wilson at a Pipe Organ Encounter (POE) in 1991. His involvement in POE has continued since then as a student, chaperone, teacher, performer, and director. Tom directed a POE in Rochester, NY, in 2002 and a POE+ in Detroit in 2004. An active member of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), he has served on the national Committee on the New Organist and on the executive board of the Detroit Chapter.
He has been awarded First Prize at several regional and national competitions, including the Redlands Organ Festival Competition, the San Marino Organ Competition, the John Rodland Memorial Church Music Scholarship Competition, and the AGO Region V Competition for Young Organists. In July of 2006, Tom became the first organist to win both the First Prize and Audience Prize in the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation.
Tom has presented numerous programs around the country including solo recitals, duo recitals, hymn festivals, service playing workshops, silent film accompaniments, and master classes. Recent performances have included such venues as Ocean Grove Auditorium, Portland Municipal Auditorium (Maine), and Spreckels Organ Pavilion, and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. Most notably, Tom has been a featured performer at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society in Dallas, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Buffalo, Chicago, and Cleveland. Tom recently served as Organist and Organ Clinician at the Westminster and Montreat conferences of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and will have choral conducting responsibilities at Westminster in 2008. Tom’s debut recording, Organa Americana, featuring works by American composers, was released on the Pro Organo label in 2004. Organ Ovations and Improvisations on the Raven label was released in 2007.
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