Director Thomas Cunningham holds a master’s degree in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where he has served as adjunct assistant professor of conducting, and a bachelor’s degree in Music from Yale University. He formed the Manhattan Choral Ensemble with Matt Laufer in the fall of 2000 to provide audiences in New York with high-quality choral music through engaging and inviting concerts, and to provide singers in New York with an opportunity to explore challenging choral music in a mutually supportive group of committed musicians. With the MCE, Mr. Cunningham has conducted the Handel Dixit Dominus, Bach’s Cantata 131, the Vivaldi Gloria, the Stravinsky Mass, and other masterworks for choir and orchestra. Through the New Music for New York commissioning project, Mr. Cunningham has performed the premieres of newly-commissioned works by George Andoniadis, George Steel, Patrick Castillo, Charles Griffin, Greg Brown, Nico Muhly, and other aspiring and established composers.

In addition to the MCE, Mr. Cunningham was the founder and director of the Boston Choral Ensemble, and he has served as the director of the Dartmouth Chamber Singers and as the associate conductor of the Masterwork Chorus of New Jersey.