He began his career at his recording studio, Zounds Productions, which he founded and co-owned with Brad Garton in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
[3] [4] He has published two books, one a biography of legendary Broadway Sound Designer Abe Jacob, The Designs of Abe Jacob,and Music as a Chariot, for Routledge, a philosophical treatise on theatre as a type of music, specifically, music to which ideas have been attached and conveyed through mimesis.
He has explored his theories on theatre as a type of music in a series of original productions that include Choices which was performed at World Stage Design in Taipei, Taiwan,[5] and included as part of the US National Exhibition at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial,[6] Ad Infinitum³, which performed at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial,[7] and subsequently at the 2013 opening of the Qualcom Institute at the University of California, San Diego,[8] and Labcoats on Clouds, which performed at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial.
[9] His explorations in theatre as a type of music evolved largely out of the dozens of productions for which he composed sound scores over his nearly forty-year career as professional composer and sound designer.
[10] Thomas is a full professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Purdue University, where he has been honored many times including winning the 2017-2018 Purdue Liberal Arts Discovery Excellence Award for Creative Art,[11] being named a Purdue Legacy Artist in 2010,[12] and awarded The George P. Murphy Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2008.