Dr. Thomas Mark Breadon Jr. is a teacher, bassoonist, and composer living in Phoenix, Arizona. He is currently the Band Director at Arizona School for the Arts and a composer and performer with the Mill Ave Chamber Players. 

Recently featured performances of Thomas’s compositions include the Spring Mix at the Orpheum with Ballet Arizona and the Mill Ave Chamber Players, the FAOT Festival Alfonso Ortiz Tirado in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, the Red Rock Music Festival in Sedona, AZ, the Walled City Music Festival in Derry, Northern Ireland, the Downtown Chamber Series at the Mesa Arts Center, the University of Arizona Woodwind Chamber Fest in Tucson, AZ , the International Flute Association Convention in Phoenix, AZ, Arizona PBS Playlist 48, and on The Classical Happy Hour with Greg Kostraba on KBACH 89.5 fm. 

Thomas has recorded two albums with the Mill Ave Chamber Players. His composition Impressions for Wind Quintet was recorded and paired alongside compositions by composers Robert V. Springer, John Steinmetz, Kerry Turner, and Jessica Meyer for the album Impressions which was released in 2018. In 2016, The Mill Ave Chamber Players were joined by The Pacific Arts Wind Quintet to record the music of John Steinmetz in the album What The Birds Said. 

The Mill Ave Chamber Players have also recorded two sets of Thomas’s educational outreach compositions for Woodwind Quintet and Narrator entitled Aesop’s Fables and North American Folktales. Both recordings were paired with paintings by the Phoenix based artist Tifa Holman to create videos that are available on Youtube. 

Aside from Chamber Music, Thomas has also performed with many orchestras here in Phoenix and across the country, including The Phoenix Symphony, the West Valley Symphony Orchestra, Symphony of the Southwest, Phoenix Opera, the Evanescence and Lindsey Stirling Orchestra, the Prescott Pops Orchestra, MusicaNova Orchestra, the Evanescence Orchestra at the Orpheum, the East Valley Millennial Choir and Orchestra, the Chandler Symphony Orchestra, the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra with Celtic Woman, Arizona Pro Arte Ensemble, the Tuscarawas Philharmonic, and the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra.

In addition to orchestral and chamber music he has performed as an improviser and collaborator with many varying artists, projects, and organizations, including: Provisions DJ Collective (2018 – 2020), Oh My Ears: Black Air (2020), Parasympathetic (2018), Navigating the Grey (2017), Tiny Dances (2016), MCCCD Experimental Arts Festival (2015), Water, Climate, Place (2015), Creation Project (2015), Listen Exhibition (2014), and Art-O-Sphere (2014).

As Director of Bands at Arizona School for the Arts, Dr. Breadon instructs and performs with eight wind ensembles composed of students from 5th through 12th grade. In 2024, Thomas lead ASA’s Chamber and Symphonic Winds in playing the national anthem at the Rate Bowl, a college bowl game held at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix. He is also the mentor for the Performing Arts College Prep course, a course designed to guide students going into the performing arts through the arduous process of applying and auditioning for colleges, universities, and conservatories. Since 2020, Thomas has been on the Showcase planning committee which plans and organizes the schools largest performance and fundraiser of the year.

In addition to his regular teaching schedule, Thomas has been a guest artist at The University of Arizona, Morehead State University, The University of Akron, Arizona State University, Western Washington University, the University of Northern Iowa, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he has performed recitals and given lectures and masterclasses on chamber music, bassoon performance, making bassoon reeds, composition, and music theory.

Thomas also maintains a private composition and bassoon studio in the greater Phoenix area. Through this he has prepared students who have been awarded performance scholarships to Arizona State University, The University of Mount Union, and Vanderbilt University, and students who have won auditioned positions in the Phoenix Youth Symphony Chamber Winds, the Phoenix Youth Symphony Symphonette, the West Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony, and the Akron Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Thomas has previously been adjunct faculty at Glendale Community College where he instructed courses in bassoon and composition lessons, chamber music, Introduction to Aural Perception, Introduction to Music Theory, Hip Hop Music and Culture, Survey of American Music, and American Jazz and Popular Music. From 2015 – 2019 Thomas taught bassoon lessons at Rosie’s House, a non-profit organization that provides free music instruction and instruments to underserved students and from 2015 to 2018, he taught bassoon, chamber music, improvisation, and composition at the Mill Ave Chamber Players Summer Chamber Music Camp.

Thomas’s latest published article is entitled “Teaching Creative Writing: Filmmaking for Students” and was published in the NCTE English Journal Vol. 111, No. 4 in March of 2022. In 2014 Thomas had an article published in the International Double Reed Society Journal The Double Reed titled “Two Studies on Improvisation and Brain Function.” His dissertation titled “The Pedagogical Use of Improvisation in Western Art Music” was published in 2016; it addresses the reasons why improvisation has been excluded in the study of Western Art Music, why we should reinstate the use of  improvisation in our schools, and practical methods for introducing improvisation into personal practice and private lessons.

Prior to his positions with the Mill Ave Chamber Players and the Arizona School for the Arts, Thomas held positions as a teaching assistant in the bassoon studios of both Arizona State University and The University of Akron. He was also a teaching assistant in the music theory studio at The University of Akron. During these years he competed in five solo performance competitions. Thomas was named the winner of The Sixth Annual James Tannenbaum Memorial Scholarship Contest (2013), the Arden J. Yockey Performance Scholarship for Woodwinds (2012), the University of Akron Concerto Competition (2011), and The A. Frank and Bethel C. Gallaher Memorial Music Performance Competition (2009); he also received Honorable Mention in the Tuesday Musical Association Performance Competition (2012). As the winner of the University of Akron Concerto Competition he was awarded the opportunity to perform as a soloist the Concerto for Bassoon and Strings by Gordon Jacob with The University of Akron Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Breadon completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts at Arizona State University in December of 2015. He holds Masters degrees in Bassoon Performance and Music Theory from The University of Akron, and a Bachelors in Music Performance from Morehead State University.