Tom Zimmerman

Tom Zimmerman, Director (AGMA*)

Tom Zimmerman, Bass-baritone

Although his Bachelor of Arts degree is in Theater (minoring in voice and piano), Tom Zimmerman won a full scholarship to the Carnegie Mellon Institute’s Opera Performance Masters program where he performed principal roles and taught acting for the musical stage. He was the opera department’s stage manager and liaison with the drama department.

 He apprenticed in Tri-Cities’ Opera’s young artists program, where he directed opera workshop scenes while performing principal roles with them and in regional opera companies. 

 As founder and stage director for the Twin Tiers Lyric Opera, Tom prepared large segments of operas and toured around the region. Tom taught musical theater at Onandaga Community College, Syracuse, NY where he directed musicals and opera scenes; while teaching acting and stage make-up.

The Blossom  Festival in Ohio heard him as Verdi’s Falstaff and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. While there, he soloed with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra in a Gilbert and Sullivan and Operetta Evening. His singing career alternated between opera and musical comedy, including five seasons with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus. He also appeared “off-Broadway” in Theater for the New City’s production of “Thick Duck” a comic mystery with operatic vocals (by Tom).

 He was the founder and director of What the Dickens Caroliers, a vibrant vocal ensemble which presented choreographed shows at Tiffany’s Snowflake Lighting, parties at Radio City Music Hall and other seasonal events throughout New York City.

 During his years with Troupers Light Opera, Tom appeared as a “schizophrenic” Sir Despard Murgatroyd in “Ruddigore,” exploded onstage as a gleefully depraved Shadbolt in “Yeoman of the Guard,” commandeered the stage as a Mephistophelean Grand Inquisitor in “The Gondoliers,” keystoned his way as the Sergeant of Police in “Pirates of Penzance,” and presented a vocally majestic and slightly psychotic Emperor of Japan in “The Mikado. Tom also served as a board member and was Vice-President of Troupers. Most recently, Tom directed Trouper’s highly successful fall 2011 production of “Hail and Reign,” a medieval musical.

 Tom’s other recent theatrical endeavors have been with the Center Stage Theatre in Shelton, CT, where he usually appears in comedy roles, ie: Beverly Carlton in “The Man Who Came to Dinner” wherein he sang and accompanied himself on the piano (to great acclaim). This versatile singing actor performs roles as diverse as Emile de Becque in “South Pacific,” Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” and the “mute” King Sextimus in “Once  Upon a Mattress.” 

 Currently, Tom maintains an active vocal studio at his home in the Stratfield Historic District on the Fairfield/Bridgeport border. He and his wife Kathy sing together for concerts and weddings. They share their historic home with six fabulous and felicitous feline friends.

*American Guild of Musical Artists