Conductor Thomas Heuser is an enthusiastic musician whose vitality and passion for precision infuse his orchestral performances with striking clarity and originality.  A native of St. Louis, Missouri, he began violin lessons at age three, and then as a young pianist was awarded a scholarship to study at the St. Louis Symphony Music School.  He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College and went on to receive a Masters of Music in instrumental conducting from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.  Mr. Heuser is a doctoral candidate in orchestral conducting at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.  His principal conducting teachers have included David Effron, Mark Gibson, Larry Rachleff, Thomas Baldner and John Poole.  While at Indiana University, Mr. Heuser was appointed Adjunct Lecturer in Orchestral Conducting and served as music director of the All-Campus String Orchestra.  He attracted critical acclaim as conductor of the IU Sunday Afternoon Concerto Series, which included performances that Menahem Pressler hailed as “exquisitely musical.”  As an assistant conductor of the IU Orchestra Program and Summer Festival Orchestra, Mr. Heuser worked closely with such distinguished guest conductors as Uriel Segal, Kevin Noe, Gerhardt Zimmerman, Steven Smith, Cliff Colnot and David Robertson. With a dedication to new music that stems from his background as a composer, Mr. Heuser has conducted premier performances of nearly thirty original compositions, and has served as music director of several organizations devoted to contemporary music, including the Experimental Theater of Vassar College, The Mahagonny Ensemble, and the ExArt Organization of Bloomington.  Recently he worked with Kevin Noe, artistic director of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, during the much-anticipated Indiana University Opera Theater production of “Too Many Sopranos” by IU faculty member Edwin Penhorwood.  Equally talented as a singer, Mr. Heuser studied voice as a countertenor with Drew Minter.