“Because I cannot sleep I make music in the night.”
Tom Wasinger is a self-educated multi-instrumentalist, vocalist,
music producer, music arranger, composer, and educator
based in the mountains outside of Boulder, Colorado.
Tom has received three Grammy Awards from The Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for his work as a music producer/arranger/composer: The first in 2003 for Beneath the Raven Moon by Native American artist Mary Youngblood (Silver Wave Records, 2002), the second in 2007 for Dance With the Wind also by Mary Youngblood (Silver Wave Records, 2006), and the third in 2009 as producer/arranger for the compilation Come to Me Great Mystery by various Native American artists (Silver Wave Records, 2008). Tom was also the producer/arranger of the Grammy-nominated Peacemaker's Journey by Native American vocalist Joanne Shenandoah (Silver Wave Records, 2000), and producer/composer//arranger for the Grammy-nominated Feed the Fire by Mary Youngblood (Silver Wave Records, 2004).
Tom has received four A.F.I.M. (American Federation of Independent Music) Indie Awards as producer/arranger of: Matriarch Joanne Shenandoah (Silver Wave Records, 1996), Peacemaker's Journey Joanne Shenandoah (Silver Wave Records, 2000), and as producer/composer/arranger of Heart of the World Mary Youngblood (Silver Wave Records, 1999), and Beneath the Raven Moon Mary Youngblood (Silver Wave Records, 2003).
Tom has received six Nammy awards from the Native American Music Association as producer/arranger of: Orenda Joanne Shenandoah and Lawrence Laughing (Silver Wave Records, 1999), x2 including best producer for Peacemaker's Journey Joanne Shenandoah (Silver Wave Records, 2000), Earth Gift Kevin Locke (Ixtlan Recording Consortium, 2008), and as producer/composer/arranger for Heart of the World Mary Youngblood (Silver Wave Records, 1999), and Feed the Fire Mary Youngblood (Silver Wave Records, 2004).
Tom received an American Library Association award in 1999 for the compilation of Native American lullabies Under the Green Corn Moon (Silver Wave Records, 1998), and an Amazon.com award in 1999 for Heart of the World Mary Youngblood (Silver Wave Records, 1999).
In early December of 1993 Tom gave an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered discussing his latest record The World Sings Goodnight, a collection of international lullabies. This triggered an avalanche of interest that virtually shut down NPR’s incoming phone lines with people desperate to find the album and catapulted it to #3 on the Billboard World Music chart. This record then spawned two sequels: The World Sings Goodnight 2 (Silver Wave Records, 1995), and a collection of Native American lullabies Under the Green Corn Moon (Silver Wave Records, 1998). Pieces from these collections were later licensed and re-released by National Geographic in a recording entitled Lullabies, Dream Songs from Around the World (Sugo Music, 2002).
Tom wrote the score for the feature length mountain biking film Tread, the Movie, and the partial score for its sequel Retread. In 2012 he wrote the score for an instructional yoga film for Gaiam Inc. He has also written scores for numerous commercial short films. His music has been used in programming and syndicated programming on ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO, and ESPN. He was a member of a composer’s collective that wrote the score for the Animal Planet series Breed All About It (a series focusing on dog breeds-of course) in the late 1990's and early 2000's.
Tom has also been commissioned to compose music for various modern dance companies including Llory Wilson and Dancers of Seattle, Washington, and Helander Dance Theatre of Boulder, Colorado, and Third Law Dance/Theater also of Boulder, Colorado.
In May of 2011 Tom gave a lecture/performance in Kuwait City at the invitation of the US Ambassador to Kuwait (Deborah K. Jones, now Ambassador to Libya). He studied the music of the indigenous Kuwaiti Sea Bands, ensembles of musicians that were taken out to sea to play work songs on the fishing/pearl diving expeditions. In the presentation he demonstrated the similarities of the rhythmic elements of these Kuwaiti sea songs to western sea shanties. His concert repertoire consisted of sea shanties and other related folk songs.
Tom builds experimental musical instruments and is the founder of the world's only touring ensemble of resonating stone instruments; The Lost Angel Stone Ensemble. The ensemble has performed in numerous venues throughout the western US including the Bumbershoot Music Festival in Seattle (September, 1992). This music was also featured on NPR's All Things Considered in 1990.
