Tom Larson teaches History of American Jazz, History of Rock Music, Digital Audio Production, and jazz piano at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music. Prior to becoming a faculty member at UNL, Tom was the co-owner of Studio Q Recording in Lincoln, where he produced music for TV and radio advertising, industrial videos and documentary films. Among his credits are the scores for three documentaries for the PBS American Experience series (a production of WGBH-TV, Boston): In the White Man's Image, Around the World in 72 Days, and Monkey Trial. He also scored the documentaries Willa Cather: The Road is All for WNET-TV (New York), Ashes from the Dust for the PBS series NOVA, and the PBS specials Standing Bear's Footprint, Most Honorable Son and In Search of the Oregon Trail. Tom has written extensively for the University of Nebraska television network, South Dakota Public Broadcasting and the University of Illinois Asian Studies Department. His music has also been used on the CBS-TV series The District. His commercial credits include music written for Phoenix-based Music Oasis, LA-based Music Animals, Chicago-based Pfeifer Music Partners and General Learning Communications, and advertising agencies in Lincoln and Omaha.
Tom is also the author of three college textbooks, The History and Tradition of Jazz, Modern Sounds: The Artistry of Contemporary Jazz, and The History of Rock and Roll, all of which are published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing. His first CD of original jazz compositions, Flashback, was released in 2003. He has studied jazz piano with Dean Earle, Fred Hersch, Bruce Barth and Kenny Werner, jazz arranging with Herb Pomeroy and music composition with Robert Beadell and Randall Snyder. In addition to performing with jazz ensembles throughout the Midwest and East Coast, he has performed with Paul Shaffer, Victor Lewis, Dave Stryker, Chris Potter, Bobby Shew, Claude Williams, Bo Diddley, the Omaha Symphony, the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra, the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, and the University of Nebraska Jazz Quintet.
A Lincoln native, Tom received a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts in 1977 and a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1985. He is also an avid runner, and completed the Boston Marathon in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
