Omar Thomas

Omar Thomas (b. 1984, Brooklyn) is an award-winning composer, arranger, and Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Texas at Austin. Trained at the New England Conservatory, his music — rooted in jazz, gospel, and Black and LGBTQ+ liberation — has been performed by ensembles from the Colorado Symphony to high school wind programs nationwide. His 2019 instrumental work A Mother of a Revolution!, a tribute to transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson, became the unlikely center of a national conversation in May 2026 when the Watertown, Wisconsin school board banned it from a student concert — then watched an overflow crowd show up to hear it performed anyway.

Learn more at: 

https://www.omarthomas.com/about