Music Director Laureate

In recognition of his extraordinary tenure and artistic accomplishments, the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra (HSO) is pleased to announce that Thomas Joiner has been named Music Director Laureate beginning in the 2023/2024 season.

Thomas Joiner has appeared as a conductor, violinist, chamber player, and teacher throughout the United States and eleven foreign countries. As Professor Emeritus of Violin and Orchestral Activities at Furman University, he conducted the Furman Symphony Orchestra in orchestral, operatic, and oratorio performances. For 21 seasons (1998-2019) under the leadership of Music Director and Conductor Thomas Joiner, the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra’s creative programming led to continued growth for the orchestra, community support and sold-out performances. He invited notable musicians to perform with the HSO including pianists Lee Luvisi, and Jorge Federico Osorio, cellists Andres Diaz and Carter Brey, violinists James Buswell, Laura St. John, and William Preucil, tenors Gary Lakes and Stanford Olsen, soprano Angela Brown, trumpeter Christopher Martin, and flutist Marianne Gedigian. Popular artists included jazz trumpeter Byron Stripling, Rhythm and Brass, the Kruger Brothers, Celtic fiddler Jamie Laval, the Maharaja Flamenco Trio, and the Andy Carlson Band. Joiner created collaborative concerts with the Flat Rock Playhouse, Pat’s School of Dance, The Carl Sandburg Home, Asheville Lyric Opera, North Carolina Stage Company, the Carolina Concert Choir, the Asheville Symphony Chorus, and the Greenville Chorale.  

In addition to masterworks, pops and holiday concerts, HSO performed programs each year for thousands of Henderson County 3rd and 6th graders. The educational concerts originally began with Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. Curriculum-based concerts were soon developed by public school string teachers, violinist Lillian Hall, and double bassist Donny Walter. The HSO’s move to the Blue Ridge College campus provided new audio and video resources, creating unique concerts, one entitled “How does music make you feel?”

As an orchestral violinist Joiner has shared the stage with conductors Robert Shaw, Jorge Mester, John Nelson, and Keith Lockhart and soloists Renee Fleming, Frederica von Stade, Peter Serkin, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham and Joshua Bell. As an Artistic Ambassador for the United States Information Agency, he presented seventeen violin recitals with pianist Douglas Weeks during a five-week tour of western Africa and the Middle East. During a sabbatical Joiner studied in Paris with eminent maestro John Nelson and twice served as visiting professor at the Academia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy.

 For many years Joiner held the Dr. & Mrs. William J. Pendergrast, Sr. Artist Chair at the Brevard Music Center where he served on the conducting staff and as a concertmaster of the festival orchestra. Previous positions include Professor of Violin and Orchestral Activities at the University of Georgia School of Music, Associate Principal Second Violin of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, first violinist with the Louisville Orchestra, SC president of the American String Teachers Association, and a national board member of the Conductors Guild.

The HSO will celebrate Thomas Joiner’s HSO career with a special concert on September 30th, 2023. Special guests for the concert will be Douglas Weeks, Dianna Joiner and Ron Whittemore.