American conductor Thomas Heuser has been widely recognized for his stirring leadership and energetic presence both onstage and in the community. The upcoming 2025-26 season will be his 15th and final season as Music Director of the Idaho Falls Symphony, where he has performed more than 100 concerts with dozens of guest artists, dance companies and Broadway singers, spanning a huge repertoire that includes multiple genres and world premieres. Since 2016, Heuser has also served as Music Director of the San Juan Symphony, a regional professional orchestra that serves the Four Corners in Durango, Colorado and Farmington, New Mexico. Thomas lives in Durango with his wife, violinist Lauren Avery, and their son Theodore.

Heuser recently enjoyed debut performances with the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, performing Handel’s Messiah with vocal soloists from the Santa Fe Opera. Recent collaborations with Concert Theatre Works include performances of The Chevalier with the Winston-Salem Symphony, and the world premiere of the groundbreaking new concert experience called What Music Is with composer and creator, Bill Barclay. He has appeared as a Guest Conductor and Cover Conductor with the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra and Durango’s Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra. Subscription concert credits include the Lexington Philharmonic, Symphony New Hampshire, the Boise Baroque Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, as well as the Winston-Salem, Illinois, Wyoming, Bozeman, Missoula, Flagstaff, Vallejo, Grand Junction, and Portsmouth Symphony Orchestras, among others. Heuser served as the conductor of the 2020 All-State Festival Orchestras in New Mexico and Alabama.

Dr. Heuser was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for Orchestral Conducting in Germany while serving as a Conducting Fellow with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. His Fulbright residency at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München included orchestral performances in Munich and Berlin and his European operatic debut with Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland. Moving from Munich to San Francisco, Thomas enjoyed three seasons as the Principal Guest Conductor of the San Francisco Academy Orchestra, working alongside members of the San Francisco Symphony.

The son of two molecular biologists at Washington University in St. Louis, Thomas began violin lessons at an early age and studied piano at the St. Louis Symphony Music School. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College as a piano performance major and earned his Masters in Instrumental Conducting (MM) from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. In 2013 he completed his Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting (DMA) from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. His primary conducting mentors include Paavo Järvi, Bruno Weil, Mark Gibson, Thomas Baldner, David Effron, Marin Alsop, David Robertson, Gustav Meier, and Larry Rachleff.