Tommy Gaines, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music holds the Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Music from the University of Memphis where he studied voice with Richard Paige and Katherine Smith Akins and conducting with Robert Swift, Robert Griffith and Walter Wade. He is formerly a member of the voice faculty of Rhodes College and previously held faculty positions at the University of Memphis and Crichton College where he conducted the college choir and the touring ensemble that was chosen to be the featured choral group at the National Association of Bible Colleges annual meeting. He also held the position as Choral Director for Briarcrest Christian School where his choir won First Place at the Festival of the Lakes Competition in Toronto, Canada. A nationally recognized voice teacher and member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), his students have won numerous competitions at the local, state, regional and national levels.

Gaines has sung professionally with the Southern Opera Theatre, Memphis Oratorio Society and the Memphis Vocal Arts Ensemble where he can be heard as soloist on their recently released CD “Fairest Isle” The Music of England. He was First Place Winner of the Beethoven Club of Memphis Young Artist Competition as well as Encouragement Award Winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. A scholarship winner to the Goldovsky institute in Lafayette Louisiana, he has studied opera and stage movement with Boris Goldovsky, Arden Hopkin and Richard Aslanian. Master classes and further vocal studies have included those with Eleanor Steber, Donald Gramm, and Beverly Wolff. In July 2001 he was named Conductor/Director of the Germantown Chorus and held that position until June of 2006 and has appeared as a featured soloist with the Germantown Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions at the Germantown Performing Arts Center.

Gaines is currently the Vice-President of the Memphis Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (N.A.T.S ). He held the position of Director of Music at the White Station Baptist Church for 20 years and is currently pianist at the Union Avenue Baptist Church in Memphis. He has conducted choral clinics in several states and is in frequent demand as a sacred concert artist, having sung over 50 concerts in churches throughout the country.