In 1976 and 1977, he had lessons with Christoph Caskel at the Rheinische Musikschule [de] in Cologne, with whom he subsequently studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.
Since 1981, he has been a member of various ensembles of Uli Beckerhoff, in whose recordings of "Private Life" (1992) and "Das Geheimnis" (1994) he was also involved.
He also played with the quartet of Kenny Wheeler and Tom Van der Geld, with Reinhard_Glöder [de], Christof Lauer, Tony Lakatos, Jiří Stivín, Dom Um Romão, Jasper van 't Hof, Klaus Doldinger and Hugo Read [de].
Thönes has also been a guest soloist with the WDR Big Band, as well as in several projects by Klaus König and in the "Celebration Orchestra" of Tony Oxley, but also with Joachim Kühn as well as with jazz fusion musicians like James Blood Ulmer, Christoph Spendel [de], Michael Sagmeister, John Schröder [de], John Abercrombie and Peter O'Mara.
[2] Thönes also worked as a studio musician for film and television productions and as a lecturer at numerous jazz workshops and at the Folkwang University of the Arts before he was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar in 1995.