Born the youngest of twelve children, Tom was surrounded by music making siblings from an early age. He began playing guitar at age 6 and was really cool. Skipping ahead, he studied composition under Max Lifchitz at SUNY Albany where he got his bachelors in composition (1998) and music theory under John McGinness at the Crane School of Music, writing his master's thesis on Black Sabbath in 2001. The Ohio State University was next, where he studied theory and composition under Jan Radzynski...