Thomas Palmer is a composer based in New York City. His works have been performed by ensembles across the US, including the Imani Winds and the Akropolis Quintet. Thomas is the recipient of the John and Lucrecia Herr award for Composition and the Arthur M. Fraser award, as well as the Presser Scholar Award for extraordinary music and academic accomplishments. He was interviewed in 2019 on South Carolina NPR’s Sonatas and Soundscapes, and is published by Murphy Music Press. His piece, Don!t! Pa!nic! was chosen as a winner of the Carl Kanter prize, awarded by the Manhattan School of Music, in 2021. Thomas was also a finalist in the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards Competition in 2022.

Thomas is primarily interested in new and experimental music, and he is especially interested in the intersections of music and technology, memory, pop culture, and internet ephemera. Thomas received a B.M. in Composition from the University of South Carolina and a M.M. in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music, working with Dr. Reiko Füting.