THOMAS WERMUTH studied the violin at the Juilliard School in New York, where he was a student of famous pedagogues, Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay. In 1974, he moved to Canada to join the Kitchener - Waterloo Symphony as Assistant Concertmaster. Later, he became Principal Violist and Assistant Principal Violist of the Symphony, where he was able to incorporate his love for the deep viola voice. Tom also was a member of the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, and taught at the Guelph Suzuki School, where he discovered his passion for teaching.
In addition to his extensive performance career, Mr. Wermuth has dedicated his life to teaching teenage students at the Western Springs School of Talent Education and Naperville Suzuki School. Tom's teaching follows the philosophy of the great teaching pedagogue Shin’ichi Suzuki— he believes in teaching to the heart of the child, and connecting to the energy of the student.
With Mr. Wermuth’s unique niche in being the Advanced Artist Teacher at WSSTE and teaching pre-college musicians and adolescent teenagers, Mr. Wermuth is invited globally as a guest clinician to share his wisdom, and does Teacher Training for the Suzuki Association of the Americas. His students have won first place in the West Suburban, Walgreens, Music Chorale and the Chinese Fine Arts Competitions, and sends students to major Conservatories such as Juilliard, Eastman, Cleveland Institute of Music, Curtis, and more. Mr. Wermuth’s students have consistently performed on the Young Steinway Recital Series in Skokie, IL, and are regularly chosen to perform in the Master Classes for the national conference of the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
As a result of his students placing in the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, Mr. Wermuth was awarded the Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award, and he was also named the 2010 ASTA Illinois Teacher of the Year. In his efforts to give back to the community, Mr. Wermuth has a special scholarship at WSSTE that he awards to a special student each year to help assist them pursue a summer in serious musical training. Usually, his students would spend their summers studying with him and his daughter, Allegra, at their summer program named “Preludio”, run at the Ithaca Suzuki Institute, where they ran the program together there for 12 years.
Mr. Wermuth attributes his ability to read and understand adolescent musicians to his training at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. He uses his training in energy to connect to students on a deeper level, and allow them to become better human beings— similar to the pedagogy of Suzuki himself. Besides teaching violin, Mr. Wermuth has a thriving therapy and energy healing practice where he uses his education from the Barbara Brennan School to help clients of all ages.
Thomas and his partner, Nick, love to spend their free time with their dog, Pippin, as well as knitting and going out to eat. Soon, they will be moving to Golden, Colorado to be closer to his daughter Allegra, and his granddaughter, Satya.
