Thomas Masse

From 2013-2018, he served as dean of the Stetson University School of Music. Masse is professor of music at Stetson, where he teaches clarinet and classes in music literature.

Prior to his appointment at Stetson, Mr. Masse served in a variety of senior administrative and faculty positions at Yale University, including Deputy Dean of the Yale School of Music, and as Associate Provost for the Arts with academic, financial, and strategic responsibility for the Yale Schools of Architecture, Art, Divinity, Drama, and Music, as well as the Institute for Sacred Music and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Art and Music.

Winner of the Woolsey Hall Competition, he also won the Music Academy of the West Concerto Competition. As an orchestral clarinetist he has performed as a member of the New World Symphony, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra, and the New Haven Symphony, to name but a few. He worked closely under Michael Tilson Thomas, Lukas Foss, and Jorma Panula.

Thomas Masse is a graduate of Yale University, where he was awarded the Benjamin Jepson Prize, and received the first Artist Diploma ever awarded a clarinetist. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan, where he was a Regents Fellow. His major teachers were David Shifrin and Fred Ormand. He also holds the MBA degree in Finance from the University of Connecticut.

Mr. Masse is the editor of the critical edition of Charles Ives' Largo for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano, which is performed throughout the world and he has authored numerous articles in international publications and has written program notes for concerts at Yale, Carnegie Hall, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

The Santa Barbara News-Press noted his "winning performance of the Nielsen Concerto...played with rhythmic vitality and bravura wedded to subtlety," and the New Haven Register remarked "And Masse was impressive. He played the seamless score with an artistic grasp of the music that delineated variety within unity, and his strongly supported tone, excellent facility, and crisp clean articulation provided a polish that animated the music and made his performance exciting." He has appeared as a solo artist at Chamber Music Northwest, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and in performances at Banff.

His former students occupy positions in some of the most prestigious orchestras in the United States and Asia, and hold prominent University positions throughout the world.

Mr. Masse is a passionate advocate for the arts in society and has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and serves on national accreditation committees for NASM, NASD (Dance), and NAST (Theatre). He is a recipient of the Yale University School of Music Alumni Association Certificate of Merit. He began his academic career at the University of Northern Colorado, becoming the youngest tenured member of the faculty, and has taught at Michigan, Yale, and Stetson.