Thomas Pellaton

President

Thomas Pellaton is a double degree graduate of Oberlin College and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music having done work in Intellectual History and Voice Performance. He was a Metropolitan Opera District Audition winner during his time at Oberlin. He received an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Opera Theater but was drafted into the Army and served both in Vietnam in Army Intelligence and then in Europe. He became a member of the Opera Studio at the Staatsoper Zürich Company and sang a number of roles there before he returned to New York. He was the maître d' at at the famed Carlyle Hotel and sang with a number of small opera companies in New York, including the Amato Opera. Fr. Tom then joined Shaw Concerts and was assistant to the president, Harold Shaw, European manager and head of the Vocal Roster. He helped manage such artists as Janet Baker, Nathan Milstein, Jessye Norman, Hermann Prey, John Williams, Robert Shaw, Garrick Ohlsson and many others.

He was active in homeless and feeding ministries at St. Thomas Church and St. Michale's but felt called to full time ministry and entered the Yale Divinity School Institute of Sacred Music where he was the Giles Scholar. He also held a fellowship in Urban Ministry. He was ordained both deacon and priest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and served as Curate at St. Michael's in New York and then Rector of the Church of the Ascension in Munich, Germany. He returned to the USA as rector of the church of the Ascension in Rockville Centre, Long Island and then retired to Harlem in 2010 where he preached and celebrated in most of the Episcopal Churches in Harlem.