Tom Kelley is an active saxophonist and woodwind player based in New York City. Tom is one of the 2024 Winners of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards. He is a current sub on Broadway’s Sunset Boulevard at the St. James Theatre, and on MJ the Musical at the Neil Simon Theater. He was also a sub on The Neil Diamond Musical: A Beautiful Noise at the Broadhurst Theatre and Water for Elephants at the Imperial Theater. He was the reed player on the National Broadway Tour of Beautiful: The Carol King Musical (2021-2022).
Tom is an alto and tenor sub in Arturo O'Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at Birdland Jazz Club. He is also the lead alto player on both the 2020 and 2019 winners of the GRAMMY “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album” category: The Omni-American Book Club by Brian Lynch, and American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom by John Daversa. During his master's in Miami, Tom recorded on 12 professional albums (16 including school).
Other notable performances and programs from the past several years include the final Brubeck Festival (2019), the Duffy Jackson Quartet at Rudy’s Jazz Club in Nashville, TN (2019), Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead (2018), Brian Lynch’s Spheres of Influence at Pinecrest Gardens, Miami, FL (2017), Alicia Hall-Moran and Shelly Berg at Festival Miami (2017), and the Banff Jazz Workshop (2016).
Tom graduated in 2018 from Frost’s Studio Jazz Writing master’s program and from Frost’s Studio Music and Jazz program in 2016, where he studied mainly with Gary Lindsay and Gary Keller, respectively. Tom was a Brubeck Fellow (Brubeck Institute, University of the Pacific) from 2012-2013, studying predominantly with Joe Gilman and Jeff Clayton. Other teachers during school include Martin Bejerano, Dale Underwood, Adam Kolker, and David Liebman.
Tom graduated from Canton High School (Connecticut) in 2012. His main teachers were John and Barbara Mills as well as Bruce Haynes.