By David Beers

Andrew Thomson distinctly remembers a pivotal moment in his life: it was the 90s and he was singing in the Chorus Angelicus children’s choir at the Norfolk Music Shed. Also onstage were professional adult instrumentalists accompanying the choir.  Thomson was awed by their musicality and got his first glimpse of his future career. His remembrance of that night now inspires him to help musicians of all backgrounds and abilities to flourish.

It has been an interesting, winding road for the 32-year-old Thomson. He began voice and piano lessons at the age of four, soon followed by percussion. He remained very dedicated to his musical training throughout his years at Botelle elementary school and Northwestern Regional High School, where his focus became percussion. Upon graduation, he joined the Marine Corps and, after basic training, began working at the Naval School of Music in Virginia, composing and arranging music for the Army, Marine Corps and Navy ensembles stationed there. When his enlistment was up, the GI Bill put him through Ithaca College, where he earned a music and anthropology degree. After a stint working with a high school marching band in Pennsylvania, he was ready to return home to Norfolk.

Thomson is a musician first and foremost. He performs at a wide variety of venues on an equally wide variety of instruments. In addition to an abundance of percussion instruments, he also enjoys bagpipe and keyboard/piano. He has a particular fondness for Irish and Scottish music. 

At first, Thomson’s work was based out of his crowded small apartment, while mainly performing on the road. After purchasing a house in 2019, a whole new opportunity presented itself—the space to create his own studio to practice and record. The construction skills gleaned from his canoe-restoring father (Schuyler Thomson) allowed him to plunge into making his basement into the studio of his dreams. During this process, Thomson realized that he wanted to share his new studio space with other musicians and provide professional studio services at reasonable, musician-accessible prices. Pipeman Studios LLC was born—a place where music is created from start to finish. (The name ‘Pipeman’ is the name the Cree tribe of northern Quebec gave him because he smoked a pipe to keep the bugs away.)

At Pipeman Studios, Thomson works as a composer, arranger, recording engineer and a host for small guest ensembles that need a space to create. Thomson is always writing original musical scores for a variety of instruments. New music is constantly percolating in his head, he says, with original CDs and scores being offered for sale and commissioned each year.

The studio has two rehearsal/recording spaces that can each support up to six musicians. Thomson offers recordings of practice sessions and audition portfolios, as well as full album recording and mixing. He makes available to musicians a huge variety of percussion instruments, marimba, vibraphone, harpsichord, dulcimer, bagpipes, keyboards and a piano (along with a guy who is proficient on all of them). While open to any musician in need, Thomson caters primarily to acoustic performers, particularly singer-songwriters, and up-and-coming musicians and small bands. 

In addition to recording his own music at his studio, Thomson likes to take his show on the road to record, livestream and perform anywhere there is a need. If a band wants him to record their album at another venue or at a live concert, Thomson’s equipment is totally mobile. 

Thomson offers lessons in percussion, composition and music theory. He does engraving and publishing of musical scores on fine papers and also repairs and tunes instruments. He sums up his diverse offerings by saying, “I try to meet needs as they arise.”

Thomson currently does a lot of work for the music program at Northwestern Regional, including most of their recording and mixing. This past year found him editing and combining thousands of tracks of socially-distanced student performances. He is proud of the work he did at Northwestern to keep the music program alive during the pandemic.

Thomson enjoys collaborating with other area musicians and partaking in the mutual support of the tight local music community, with its rich regional musical heritage. He plans to continue his work for the Northwestern music program and hopes to add other schools to his schedule. He also hopes to resume collaboration with Infinity Hall and the Yale School of Music as those programs come back to normal operations. Most importantly, he looks forward to mentoring and cheerleading musicians, as was done for him many years ago.