Thomas Yee
Assistant Professor of Instruction, Theory & Composition, Music
Contact
Bio
Some composers found their love of music at the symphony hearing Brahms or Beethoven — Thomas B. Yee (b. 1992) discovered his from the beeps and boops of the family Super Nintendo. As a composer, his artistic mission is to transmute meaningful human stories into immersive, transformative musical works. Thomas' music of Holocaust remembrance synthesizes his fierce commitment to musical meaning with a passion to spotlight acts of racial injustice throughout history and the world. Similarly, his research in music semiotics and ludomusicology explores the creation and interpretation of music as a meaningful, communicative, and quintessentially human activity.
Thomas' opera Eva and the Angel of Death presents the powerful story of Holocaust survivor and educator Eva Mozes Kor, and will premiere starring Page Stephens in Austin, TX. His work has been performed by the NOW Ensemble, Ensemble Mise-En, Density512, Hear No Evil, Indiana University Symphonic Band, University of Texas at Austin New Music Ensemble, Kansas State University Percussion Ensemble, and Mary Pickford Ensemble; honored as a finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, ISCM World Music Days, and winner of the Hear No Evil and Voices of Change Composition Competitions; and received grants from the Austin Cultural Arts Division, Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, and Friends of Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. His scholarship has appeared in the United States and internationally in journals, conferences, and a forthcoming monograph on musical meaning in video game soundtracks. His musical mentors include Donald Grantham and Nina C. Young in composition, Robert Hatten in music theory, and Jerry Junkin in conducting. Thomas completed his DMA at the University of Texas at Austin and is Lecturer of Music Theory at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Thomas lives in Austin, Texas and can often be found cooking gourmet cuisine from the "Yee Bistro" with his wife Tori or on walks with their affectionate dog, Cassie the Kelpi.
Teaching
Courses:
- Aural Skills 1
- Aural Skills II
- Basic Skills I
- History of Recorded Music
Degrees
- B.A., Pepperdine University
- M.M., The University of Texas at Austin
