Thomas P Gamboa

Thomas Gamboa, DMA, serves as Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Wind Studies at CCM. He serves as the music director of the CCM Wind Ensemble, teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level conducting courses, supervises music education interns, teaches survey of wind literature for graduate students and directs the Graduate Cognate Program in Wind Conducting.

Originally from San Diego, Gamboa earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education and Music Performance in bassoon from UCLA. He also earned a Masters of Music degree in Conducting from Northwestern University studying with Mallory Thompson, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the University of Michigan studying with Michael Haithcock. Additional conducting studies include work with David Effron, Gary Hill, Donald Hunsberger, Jerry Junkin, Kenneth Kiesler, Craig Kirchhoff, Tom Lee, David Loebel, Donald Neuen, Kevin Sedatole, Neal Stulberg, Mark Davis Scatterday, Michael Votta and Victor Yampolsky.

An accomplished conductor, Gamboa previously held the rank of Captain and served active duty as Conductor and Commander of the United States Air Force Band at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. He later served as Associate Conductor and Flight Commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Band at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. He earned his commission from Officer Training School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama in February 2011.

Gamboa traveled with the Band of the Air Force Reserve on numerous national and international tours including Spain, Germany, Turkey, Qatar and Kuwait. He also helped plan, execute and edit the band’s final television broadcast Holiday Notes from Home 2011, which featured country music group Little Big Town and singer/songwriter Lee Ann Womack as guest artists. The Band of the Air Force Reserve celebrated a historic second nomination for an Emmy Award in Entertainment Programming for this broadcast, which was viewed by 1.1 million people in 174 countries.

A seasoned educator, Gamboa taught and served as the Instrumental Music Director and Music Department Chair at West Adams Preparatory High School in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Central Los Angeles. During his tenure, he founded and conducted the high school’s marching band, wind ensemble, chamber orchestra, and symphonic orchestra. He was also a conducting and chamber music instructor for the National High School Music Institute, where he served as Assistant Conductor for the Wind Ensemble. Additionally, Gamboa has been teaching drum major camps as a Head Instructor with the United Spirit Association during the summer for more than 18 years. In addition to teaching, he designs the conducting curriculum and trains instructors with the drum major camps.