“Music has inspired me to every emotional level…and has filled all of my senses.”
Music was a major part of my early life in Zionsville, Indiana. My mother was a concert pianist, and was our church organist, my father played the trumpet and had an orchestra, my older brother, David, played saxophone and had a jazz band, my younger sister, Mary Sue, played the alto horn, and I have played the clarinet, piano, the organ, the 5-string banjo, and several other instruments. All three of us played in the school bands. My entire family sang in 4-part harmony. My extended family were all musicians. Major holidays get-togethers were filled with music. I have sung in church choirs from age nine for my entire life. I also sang in school choruses. I was selected to sing as the soloist with the Van Nuys High School Orchestra for the 1954 Graduation.
I studied music from the age of six and performed for a wide range of events and competitions…winning numerous honors and awards. Vocal training began with G. Wade Ferguson in Van Nuys, CA and continued under Marceen Jardine in Ventura, CA.
I began professionally singing from the age of nine throughout my early life on radio stations: WIBC, WFBM, and later on KMOX, KKOG, KTLA and AFN-Europe. I had my own 8-week television show Tom Northam Sings on KKOG-TV in California. While in the US Army, I performed for the enlisted men’s clubs, the non-commissioned officers’ clubs, the officers’ clubs, and and several other venues and performed for over twenty appearances as the featured entertainer for the USA for over 33,000 East German Refugees after the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961.
Music genres include: classical, semi-classical, show music, pop, jazz, blue-grass, country, R&B, and ragtime. During the late seventies, International Jazz Report editor, Paul E. Affeldt stated “…Tom Northam is not a vocalist…he’s a singer who can bring an entire audience to their feet. He is one of the top ten ragtime singers in the country.”
To date, I have over 4,000 appearances as a singer and entertainer.
I have two Albums: A Night At The Palace which was recorded during a live performance and A Tribute To Valor, a narrative with songs of the Civil War.
https://tomnortham.com/tom-northam/a-tribute-to-valor/
https://tomnortham.com/tom-northam/a-night-at-the-palace/