Mitch Thomas

Mitch Thomas is a professional drummer and percussionist from New Zealand now based in Melbourne. He holds a Bachelor of Music Arts from ARA Institute of Canterbury and studied with Ted Meager, Tim Sellers and Joseph McCallum during his time there.

He began learning the drums at age 13 with Mark LaRoche and quickly became a member of his high-school’s big band, jazz combo, pop/rock band and orchestra. Quickly becoming a versatile drummer he developed a deep love of jazz, funk, pop, rock and orchestral styles and developed his music reading and musicianship.

In 2011 he toured Europe for three weeks with the Linwood College Orchestra and Big Band, the highlight of which was playing in Westminster Abbey for Anzac Day. He also began studying drums at ARA Institute of Canterbury where he joined the school Motown band, Latin band, Odd-time band, Monk-Mingus band and Big band.

In 2012 he joined his first professional act, Esky-Motown, which performed a Motown tribute show touring to national festivals as well as playing functions and weddings.

While in New Zealand he was a member of many other professional ensembles including Symposium Big Band, Darren Pickering Quartet, Vital Organ Trio, Go-Go-Calypso, Off The Charts, The Bluesberries, The Elly Rydge Quintet, The Nick Pitts Trio as well as playing with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

He began performing in the theatre industry in 2014 with his first professional show End of the Rainbow which was a beautiful tribute to Judy Garland. Developing into a multi-disciplined musician, he covers drum kit, percussion instruments, electronic percussion/triggers and sings backing vocals. He has since gone on to play a number of high-profile professional shows such as Wicked, We Will Rock You, Jersey Boys, Little Shop of Horrors and RENT to name a few.

Beginning in 2015 he held a Friday residency for two years as part of The Darren Pickering Trio, playing at Gustav’s Wine Bar.

In 2021 Mitch performed a set of his original music to a sold-out crowd at Little Andromeda Theatre with his group THOM. He is currently working to record and release this music in 2024.

In 2022 he recorded a number of live-video studio sessions for the Youtube channel “Live at Alex’s” featuring in Toro, The Bradley Grainger Trio and Darren Pickering Quartet. This lead to the release of a full length album by Darren Pickering entitled Small Worlds, which was released on Rattle Records in 2022.

Mitch has been a passionate educator for 13 years. He has lectured 100’s of students at tertiary, secondary and primary school levels. He specialises in teaching drum-set and percussion, coaching ensembles, music theory, music reading and writing as well as transcription.