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Tom Doncourt (b. Dec.10 1955 Flushing N.Y.)

Is an American keyboardist/composer. He also writes lyrics and produces his own music. His work fuses symphonic, electronic and acoustic sound with often intimate lyrics to capture a musical “diorama” of the world as seen from his perspective. His earliest work is known through his efforts with progressive rock band “Cathedral” their 1978 release “Stained Glass Stories”. Tom went on to do solo work, experimenting with a wide variety of sound mediums. His main instrument has been, and continues to be, the Mellotron although he uses both new and relatively old technology as well. Along with his four solo albums he has recently released a collaborative work with Ondes Martenot master Nadia Ratsimandresy from Paris, France. His albums also feature a variety of vocalists, drummer Mattias Olsson from Stockholm Sweden and bassist Chuck Bernklau from Long Beach N.Y.

Early Life:

He was born in Flushing N.Y.. His father was an N.Y.P.D officer and his mother a housewife from Vermont. They lived in his grandmothers house which, by his accounts, was haunted. The family moved to Islip Terrace Long Island in 1963. Once settled into his new school Tom began to write poetry which drew some attention by his school faculty through his elementary school days and into High School. At the age of 14 he joined a band as vocalist and began playing the organ at 14.

Career:

With money he inherited from his grandmother, Tom bought a Hammond organ and Leslie Speaker and started playing with local musicians. In 1973 he started a band that played original material featuring lead singer Kathy Trocolli and using his lyrics and music. He went to Hofstra University to study pipe organ and electronic music but left to secure a loan for a Mellotron, working at a furniture factory to pay it off.

Odyssey: was a psychedelic and later ‘“progressive rock” band that had been playing in Long Island clubs since the 1960’s. By 1973 they were performing all original music shows. The original members were 10 years older than Tom and had been a major influence on his development as a keyboardist and writer. In 1974 they invited him to join as mellotronist. He performed two concerts with them and then formed a new band with guitarist Rudy Perrone and bassist Ed Gagliardi (who later to join Foreigner).

Cathedral: In January of 1975 Odyssey disbanded and bassist Fred Callanalong with vocalist Louie Lovino joined Tom and Rudy to from Cathedral. They added drummer Barry Kadane who played in earlier groups with Tom. By 1976 Paul Seal replaced Louie and Mercury Caronia replaced Barry Kadane. Under the management of Mercury’s dad Cathedral began planning an original album. Mr Caronia arranged to have them record at Delta studio above the Palace Theater in Times Square. Delta released the album “Stained Glass Stories” in 1978.
Quiet: After acquiring his first multi track reel to reel tape recorder in 1978, Tom began experimenting with sound in depth. He created hundred of tape loops working with “Musique Concrete” methods he learned of at Hofstra. Using keyboards, natural sources, acoustic instruments and foley effects that he built himself, he created musical “environments”. A year later electronic musician Michael Pollack introduced Tom to Icelandic singer Gudrun Thraindottir who began adding vocals to Tom’s work. He set up live shows at the Encore Cinema in Islip, N.Y. and joined by bassist Chuck Bernklau, guitarist Joe Armetta and drummer Barry Kadane formed Quiet.
Creating & Building Musical Instruments; By 1980 Tom had gotten serious about building his own sound effects devices and percussion instruments, marimbas in particular. He took a job at Steinway and Sons to learn more techniques. Composer Steve Reich introduced Tom to one of his marimbists who had a factory in Woodstock, N.Y. manufacturing chimes and other tuned percussion instruments. He took a job there as a production manager. The factory also had a full-scale Balinese gamelan orchestra rehearsing in the upstairs studio and Tom performed with them for two years. He designed and sold his own xylophones and metalophones some of which were inspired by the gamelan. He was given the bulk of a theater organ from Bath Hudson of the group “The Band” During this time Tom began composing with MIDI.
Fauve: From the late 80’s till 1992 Tom worked on ideas for an album of MIDI based music. He used long samples of patterns played on his acoustic instruments along with symphonic sounds from a Kursweil, all triggered by an Atari St with 1 mega byte.
School of Visual Arts: Tom entered the school and built sculptures that utilized methods he had learned building instruments. The SVA helped him focus his ideas in a conceptual way and introduced him to new mediums including sand casted aluminum and bronze.
American Museum of Natural History: Since his only interest in music was in writing original material and with no support coming from the major record labels.Tom decided to take a job at the American Museum of Natural History. Starting in the Education Department in 1992 and transferring to Exhibitions in 1999 till his retirement in 2017 he designed and built many interactive teaching tools, large and small models and dioramas. The Museum had just begun its traveling show program and Tom was part of a team sent to various points on the globe to set up shows that he had worked on. On his down time he sourced out and collected musical instruments of the areas he was in. Tom was asked by the Museum’s Public Program Department to develop a class about AMNH’s famous diorama collection in which students could build their own models. This is still ongoing as of today. Tom presently consults with museums on diorama restoration.
Cathedral “The Bridge”: In 2005 the band reunited to create new work and shows. In 2007 they entered Ian London studio with engineer/producer Brian Unger. David Doig was added on guitar. They played concerts at the Boulton Center in Bayshore and an outdoor festival in Sayville N.Y.. In 2009 bassist Fred Callan moved to Las Vegas and Cathedral disbanded.
Solo Work: As digital recording became more accessible Tom’s abilities to record, arrange and experiment with music and self produce projects also grew. Along with writing music for the new Cathedral he also was able to focus on his own material. He released “Blacklight” in 2009 featuring Penelope Thomas on vocals and Chuck Bernklau on bass tracks and premiered it in a live performance at Theaterlab on 14th st.in N.Y.C. After the splitting of Cathedral he performed in an improvisational, experimental ensemble called “Globular Cluster” doing shows in underground clubs in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Alex Feld, dancer, vocalist and actress choreographed and performed dance movement for the composition “Ragged Light” which was videotaped by “One Glass”. She also recorded vocal for the song “Philosophers Path”. In 2014 Tom produced a concert at Symphony Space featuring Yuko Pepe, noise guitarist, Alex Feld, Globular Cluster and music from Blacklight along with new compositions. Shortly after that Mattias Olsson, Swedish percussionist and composer, began recording drum tracks and “effects” for Tom’s new work. Cassandra Jenkins contributed the vocals for “Which Fades Faster”. A weekend of experimentation with Yuko’s noise guitar techniques provided the backbone for “Whirlpool”. This was released in 2014 as “The Mortal Coil”. In 2015 Tom released “The Moon Will Rise” featuring Eunice Wong, Cassandra Jenkins and Michael Wookey on vocals, Mattias again on percussion, Chuck Bernklau adding bass on “April” and “Secret River”. More sessions with Yuko became “Trip to Oregon” pt.s 1,2,and 3. “The Moon Will Rise” premiered live at Symphony Space in 2015 on Tom’s 60th birthday. “House in the Woods” came out in 2007, this time featuring Kristin Slipp on vocals. Rudy Perrone, original member of Cathedral” recorded the guitar solo for “Frontier”. In the late winter of 2018 Ondes Martenotist Nadia Ratsimandresy came to Tom’s Tower Mews studio for ten days. They set their goal to. Record an album’s worth of music that could possibly be used as soundtracks. This was released as “Ratsimandresy & Doncourt Volume 1”.