Thomas Wikman, Doctor of Fine Arts
Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Mr. Wikman was given a rigorous private musical
education from an early age. He began composing and playing the piano at
age five, and was soon performing frequently in public. At seven he began
formal training with composer Carl Borgeson, studying composition, harmony,
form and analysis, counterpoint and orchestration. Throughout his childhood
and teenage years, he was active in both amateur and professional circles as
a composer, pianist, trombonist, organist and church choir director.
As a young man in Chicago he studied composition and theoretical subjects,
primarily with Leo Sowerby and also with Stella Roberts, Jeanne Boyd and
Irwin Fischer. He studied organ and Gregorian chant with Benjamin Hadley
and others; and voice with Don Murray and Norman Gulbrandsen.
In 1987, Wikman made a critically-acclaimed debut at Lincoln Center, conducting
a sold-out performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio.
In 1993 he appeared as both organist and conductor in the inaugural concert for
the newly restored Library of Congress. Opening the Vatican's "Rome Reborn"
exhibit, Wikman's program of liturgical music was presented before an audience of
cardinals and other church dignitaries.
In 2002 he was awarded a Doctorate of Fine Arts by the University of Illinois at
Chicago for "making an incomparable contribution to the musical life of Chicago."
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