Thomas G. Spahn (born July 30, 1955) is a three-time Emmy Award-winning composer,[1][2][3][4] Synthesizer Programmer for the 1996 Grammy Award nominated album by Eartha Kitt,[5] "Back in Business",[6] another Emmy Nomination in 2001 for Mastering Dizzy South America Tour, is an American musician [7] born in Park Forest, Illinois, and currently residing in New York City. Spahn is a longtime musical director and arranger and has worked with numerous musicians and composers on myriad projects, performances and recordings.
Early life and education
Tom Spahn was born July 30, 1955, and raised in Park Forest, Illinois. 1954 his parents, Bob and Vickie Spahn started the Park Forest Conservatory[8][9] with Chicago professional musicians like Linus Carroll,[9]Art Hodes[10] and Bill Tinkler teaching music. In high school Jay Hoel,[11] Cecil Gorey and Watt Jones[12] promoted his music projects, a rock band, productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. Graduating from High School he was given a full scholarship to Southern Illinois University to play piano with the Big Band and then subsequently toured the country for two years with the Wright Brothers Show Band.[13] With them he started on the Mellotron[14] and rose to pianist-Musical Director, through his many years of experience he has added the titles orchestrator, vocal coach, composer, producer and audio engineer.
Career
Arriving in New York City in 1975, he began his creative path by playing Blues Piano with Pearl Murray[15] at 96th and 2nd. There he met Ramona Brooks and guided her through her first album produced by Manhattan Records, Neil Portnow and Charles Koppelman. with the Single "Skinnydippin".[16] In 1976, he started his artistic partnership with the legendary performer, Miss Eartha Kitt when he became her primary arranger and musical director for the next nine years. He then met and began a long mentorship and friendship with the deeply respected Broadway orchestrator and vocal coach, Mr. Colin Romoff,[17][18][19] who, among his many achievements, taught Gypsy to Merman and Sound of Music to Mary Martin, and rehearsed Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to President John F. Kennedy.
In addition to his work with Miss Kitt, he became the musical director and arranger for the famous cabaret act, Gotham. Historically, this was the first fully outed gay male trio that boasted of being “Equal Opportunity Employers” by introducing Tom as their heterosexual pianist - Gotham specialized in the great standards of the 1930s and 1940s. A real top hat and cane team with an outrageous spin on staying alive in the ferocious world of the AIDS epidemic. To this day, the inner circle of the NY cabaret scene will lift their hats to Gotham.
In 1980 Tom produced Big Bird - Getting Ready for School for Sesame Records at the famous Nola Recording Studios with John Post engineering. in 1985 Jim Czak & John Post invited Tom to operate Studio B at Nola Recording Studios, developing the MIDI studio as MIDI was starting with the Yamaha DX7 and the Kurzweil 250 Keyboards.
Over the years his relationship with Sesame Workshop, then Children’s Television Workshop, grew and he is very proud to have been a part of that family for the decades as an integral part of their musical department working with Joe Raposo, Dave Connor and recording vocal performances for the show at Media Sound and then Nola Recording. Since 1996 Tom has worked on many of their toy franchise products starting with Tickle Me Elmo. In the Sesame Workshop Recording Studios, he brings an expertise in all digital recording standards and master of high quality audio through low resolution chips.
Like most people in the entertainment industry, he is a multi-tasker. While doing all the above he has composed and arranged original underscoring for continuing dramas like the Emmy Award-winning daytime serial, ABC’s All My Children and Guiding Light for Judy Rybak Supervising Producer.[20]
Currently, he continues his work at Sesame Workshop, and has several projects in development, City of Light that he wrote with Beverly Ross, Hot Ice - with Michael Pace and Francesca James and works with Ray Kennedy (VP of Entertainment, USO - New York) arranging updated versions of the American classic and patriotic repertoire for the 60+ member USO Show Troupe[21] that tour all over the world to support our service men and women in the military.
Discography
1976 - Max's Kansas City 1976 - Fender Rhodes, ARP Synthesizer, Mini Moog for Phillip Rambow
1978 - Ramona Brooks - Manhattan Records
1980 - Mr. Men Album
1981 - Sesame Street - Big Bird Getting Ready for School - Sesame Records
1983 - Roger Hargreaves - Mr Men and Little Miss - Stories 1983
1988 - Marlo Thomas - Free To Be...A Family
1989 - Jorn Hoel - Love Will Make You do Things That You Know Is Wrong
1991 - Blossom Dearie & Mike Renzi - Christmas Spice So Very Nice - Synthesizer
1991 - Blossom Dearie & Mike Renzi - Tweedledum and Tweedledee - Synthesizer, Synthesizer Programming[22]
1992 - Christina Andreou - Opera Made Easy - MET Opera Bookstore
1993 - K.T. Sullivan - Crazy World - Programming
1993 - Aztec Two-Step - Of Age - Engineer, Keyboards
1993 - Laurie Beechman - Time Between the Time - Synthesizer[22]
1994 - Eartha Kitt - Back in Business - Synthesizer, Programming
1994 - Cynthia Crane - Smoky Bar Songs for the No-Smoking Section - Mastering
1995 - Cynthia Crane - Blue Rendezvous - Mastering
1995 - Bonnie Lee Sanders - Bonnie's Bway Moon Song Shoppe - Producer, Music Direction, Composer
1995 - Barbara Carroll - Everything I Love - Editing
1996 - Eartha Kitt - Back In Business
1996 - Michael Callen - Legacy - The Healing Power of Love - Engineer
1997 - Cynthia Crane - Cynthia's in Love - Mastering
1997 - Mike Longo - I Miss You John - Mastering
1997 - Mike Longo - New York '78 - Mastering
1997 - Havana Carbo - So I'll Dream You Again - Mastering
1997 - Diahann Carroll - The Time of My Life - Mastering
1998 - Joe Kennedy - Accentuate the Positive - Mastering
