Laura Thomas

Laura Mulligan Thomas has served as the director of the Charlottesville High School Orchestra for nearly four decades. She came to CHS after graduating with honors from James Madison University in 1982 and began immediately to develop and nourish the orchestra program of the eight students she inherited. Today an award-winning group of 100, a number of CHSO graduates are professional musicians who perform with orchestras and pop, rock, and country artists in the U.S. and Europe. Still other alumni have followed in Ms. Thomas’s footsteps and pursued careers in music education.

Under her direction, the CHSO has garnered top prizes in music festivals throughout the United States—from New York to Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Williamsburg, Nashville, Orlando, Virginia and Myrtle Beaches—and abroad in London, Vienna, Florence, Rome, Paris, Prague, Galway, and Dublin. The CHSO has performed at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, at five Virginia Music Educators Association conferences, and under the direction of maestro Loren Maazel at his inaugural Castleton Music Festival.

Numerous additional awards for Ms. Thomas’s work with young musicians include Charlottesville’s Distinguished Teacher Award, the Golden Apple Award, the Piedmont Council of the Arts Award, and Outstanding Educator in Central Virginia awarded by Phi Delta Kappa. In 2002, Shenandoah University honored her with its first graduate Alumna of Excellence Award, and in 2013 she was recognized as the James Madison University Outstanding Music Educator Alumnus.

Honored as Charlottesville’s Citizen of the Year in 2015 by the Rotary Club and Woman of the Year in 1999 by the Virginia Women’s Forum, Ms. Thomas was also named one of the Charlottesville Top 25 Citizens by C-ville. She studied orchestral conducting with Thomas Wilkins, Carl Roskott, and Ray Fowler, and holds a master’s degree in music from Shenandoah Conservatory.

Ms. Thomas spent her early years in Alexandria, Virginia, where she studied piano with National Symphony pianist Marion Herrett and learned cello in the Alexandria City Schools string program. She has chaired the Fine and Performing Arts department at Charlottesville High School for nearly 25 years and directed the University of Richmond Orchestra for three. Ms. Thomas was recently elected president of the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association.

An active performer, Ms. Thomas plays piano and cello with several Charlottesville chamber ensembles. Whenever possible performs with her daughter Emily Thomas Waters as Maestra Strings and with her three siblings as the Mulligan String Quartet.

Ms. Thomas is very excited to join the YOCVA family this fall, and is already dreaming of the repertoire we will perform.