Thomas Jenrette is in his twenty-ninth year as Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. A native of Galax, Virginia, he holds the degrees Bachelor of Arts in Voice and Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a student of Lara Hoggard, and the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Elizabeth Green and Thomas Hilbish. He has done post-doctoral study in conducting with Howard Swan, Brock McElheran, Margaret Hillis and Helmuth Rilling. His first teaching position was with the Burlington, North Carolina, City Schools, where, after three years as choral director at Cummings High School, he was promoted to the position of Director of Cultural Arts for the school system. Subsequent teaching posts include Olivet College in Michigan and Southwest State University in Minnesota.
Under Dr. Jenrette's direction, ETSU choral ensembles have performed for the 1986, 1988, 1994 and 2004 southern division conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and the 1989, 1999 and 2007 national ACDA conventions. They have also been selected to perform for state and southern division conventions of the Music Educators National Conference, for two national conventions of the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, and twice at the White House in Washington, D.C. Concert tours have taken them throughout the eastern United States, Europe, Venezuela, and the Caribbean, and they have accepted invitations to perform at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, and the Berlin Cathedral in Germany.
Dr. Jenrette served as ACDA southern division repertoire and standards chair for male choruses from 2000 to 2006 and as Tennessee R & S chair from 1990 until 2000. At the 2004 ACDA southern division convention, he presented an interest session on attracting and retaining male singers. He has been invited to conduct all-state male choirs in Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Dr. Jenrette is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Omicron Delta Kappa honor societies, an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and a National Associate in the Arts in Sigma Alpha Iota. He is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World.