Thomas J. Tropp, D.Mus.
Conductor, Musicologist, Recording Producer, Keyboard Technician
Thomas J. Tropp, D.Mus.
Dr. Tom Tropp enjoys a multifaceted music career as a conductor, musicologist, lecturer, and piano technician.
As a conductor, Dr. Tropp’s area of specialization is eighteenth century sacred music. His energetic and engaging style has put him in high demand as a guest conductor and clinician, where he particularly enjoys working with choirs and orchestras wishing to gain experience in historic performance practice of early music. He is the Director of Music and Arts at First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, Illinois; Music Director of the Chicago Galant Consort, a professional early music choir and orchestra; and a faculty member in the School of Music, Art, and Theater at North Park University in Chicago, as well as the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston.
Dr. Tropp’s present research initiatives include the music of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan Galant style, posthumous derivative works of eighteenth-century composers, and the history of the American piano industry. He is the founder and managing editor of The Galant Masters Project, an editorial venture intended to rediscover lost works of Galant-style sacred music by producing critical performing editions and recordings of previously unpublished manuscripts.
As a keyboard technician, Dr. Tropp has a particular interest in vintage pianos and period instruments (harpsichord, chamber organ, fortepiano, etc.). He does some standard tuning and maintenance work but focuses primarily on reconditioning and restoration projects.
Tom Tropp holds the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Illinois Wesleyan University, the Master of Music degree in conducting and historical musicology from The University of Arizona, and the Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University, where his dissertation, Cantaten in Musik gesetzt von W.A. Mozart: The Contrafacta Cantatas, K.Anh. 124-130, was the 2014 recipient of the American Choral Directors Association’s Julius Herford Dissertation Prize.
Dr. Tropp resides in Lake Forest, Illinois, with his wife Anne and daughter Katie.