Tom Richards is a musician with a kaleidoscopic range of work. A low-brass specialist, pianist, composer, conductor, and producer, Tom performs in dozens of active projects, including The Heavyweights Brass Band, The Human Rights, Riverrun, and The Woodshed Orchestra. Riverrun has become well known for pushing the boundaries of conventional performance practice through the radical use of technology and the staging of 12-hour marathon performances.

Tom has recorded and performed with Roscoe Mitchell, Ron Sexmith, Ben Caplan, Bruno Capinan, Bros, Nomadica, David Braid, The Wooden Sky, Drumhand, The Hidden Cameras, The Rheostatics, Spoon, Shred Kelly, The Massey Hall Band, The Australian Art Orchestra, Theatre Columbus, Soulpepper Theatre, Skeleton Crew, FOG, Ebi, The Composer’s Collective Big Band, and many others. Tom recorded on trombone for the award-winning Cuphead video game soundtrack, released in 2017.

Tom has composed several hundred pieces of original music, ranging from solo repertoire to large ensemble works. 2016/17 saw him arrange and compose for Ron Sexmith, The Massey Hall Band, The Heavyweights Brass Band, and The Queer Songbook Orchestra, among others. Tom was commissioned in 2018 to compose a piece for the Composer’s Collective Toronto Suite, and his composing/arranging work was featured on at least five new albums in the same year. His electro-acoustic piece Rosetta was premiered at Spectrum Music’s Starry Night concert in February, 2015. Tom’s composition Full and Empty Barrel for trumpet and piano was premiered at the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal Standard Life Competition in November, 2014.

Tom is the conductor of Sarah Jerrom’s acclaimed “Yeats Project”, and in 2012 he conducted the debut of Ali Berkok’s original score for Eisenstein’s silent film “Battleship Potemkin”.