BIO

Hollie Thomas is an award-winning composer, pianist and language turned music educator dedicated to helping musicians deepen their musical understanding and chord prowess through creative play on the piano. Her years as an intensive English language instructor at the University of Texas well as her experience composing and performing modern classical and rock music have greatly affected her evolution as a teacher over the past 20 years in her independent Austin, Texas music studio. Hollie holds a Bachelor or Arts in Music Composition and a Masters of Education in Linguistic Acquisition.  Her principal teachers in classical piano performance are Hugh E. Thompson, Dr. Edward West, and Dr. Timothy Woolsey, and in composition, Dr. Jerry Hatley and the incomparable Dr. Michael Woods.

COMPOSER Hollie’s early compositions, often sparked by dark poetry, lost rivers, the City of Light, and whimsical childrens’ literature, received several awards, most notably the International League of Women Composers Ellen Taafe Zwilich* Award for her setting of Robert Frost’s Fire and Ice. After many years of stealth musical creativity (and being VERY busy, teaching English, teaching music, traveling around with a Korg and a Nord, and being a mom to a now 15-year-old and a black cat), she is currently creating a collection of piano vignettes, art songs, chamber works and a ballet expanding her 2022 commissioned work for string quartet and piano, Suite for Lily, in Spring 2025.  

PIANIST Professionally, Hollie has performed worldwide in classical & modern chamber groups, for cabaret, theater and dance, and in eclectic pop/rock bands such as guitarist/composer Kevin McCormick, David Garza, Mistress Stephanie & Her Melodic Cat, Deep Edward, The Jellydots, Cotton Mather, at many prominent music venues and festivals including The Cactus Cafe, Austin City Limits, SXSW, NXNW (Toronto), and ACL Festival in Austin. From 2006-2011, she performed, recorded & toured the US and Canada exclusively with Future Clouds & Radar, masterminded by Robert Harrison and described by The New Yorker as “Sprawling kaleidoscopic Art-Pop” (which was also my experience with it.  Check it out!).

EDUCATOR In 2003, Hollie resigned from UT in Austin and her 10 year career as an intensive ESL instructor and curriculum developer in order to open her independent music studio, not fully realizing how dramatically her experience teaching language would affect the evolution of her teaching life and the trajectories of her students as they grew and developed as creative, accomplished music makers.

In 2023, after 20 exuberant years of love and music joy with 100+ students and their amazing families, Hollie's Austin studio closed as she began preparations to move to Paris, France with her son, London, and their cat.

In the interim, she has provided teacher training workshops in the Austin area focused on integrating creativity and improvisation into the classical piano lesson and has partnered with Austin Symphony Violinist and Pedagogue Elise Winters in the development of music theory curriculum through creative play on piano across all levels.

Hollie's online studio, Paris Creative Piano Café, opening in January 2025, is a continuation of her work in her Austin studio, and is now open to everyone anywhere as a space to explore and build solid chord fluency through understanding and creativity on piano