Aquarian Family

Tom Sharpe

TOM SHARPE is an internationally recognized, award-winning composer, performer, and recording artist. He is a sought out clinician and performer of his own works, and the artistic director and principal performer of the SHARPE WORLD MUSIC ENSEMBLE. Along with his own music, Tom is the drummer for the widely popular, Grammy award winning group, MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER. Tom is an alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy, and holds the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from DePaul University in Chicago. He has spent years developing his unique style of visually stimulating performance and lyrical composition. A classically trained musician, Tom has blended his orchestral background with world music instrumentation and cinematic imagery to create an experience that invites the listener into the heart of the musical moment – wildly emotional and technically precise, with a gutsy edge of percussive frenzy and tribal ritual. Tom’s debut CD “Like Setting Myself on Fire” was released to critical acclaim. The title track of the CD was voted “Grand Prize Winner” – World Music Song of the Year by the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. “Trance-formation”, another album track, received honors as one of three finalists in the same category. Tom also won the 2007 Broadjam World Music Contest with “The Burning Sands”, and has been honored as a finalist in the USA Songwriting Competition and the Unisong International Songwriting Competition. He has also received outstanding achievement awards in composition from VH1, Disc Makers, and the Great American Songwriting Contest.